The Activity Circle: A Social Proxy Interface to Display the Perceived Distributed Viscosity about Workflow Technology

The chapter describes the Activity Circle, a social visualization mechanism based on the concept of Social proxy, a minimalist graphical representation that portrays socially salient aspects of users' interactions. The Activity Circle allows users to socialize how they perceive the accomplishment of work activities that are regulated by a workflow technology. The social information visualized by the Activity Circle should primarily allow people to share the distributed viscosity perception about the workflow technology used; perceived distributed viscosity concerns the perception of the extra amount of work required by this technology to fulfill the users’ organization goals, where “distributed” indicates that different groups of users perceive the impact of workflow technology differently. Making this information explicit may help groups of users reconcile the conflicts about disparities introduced by workflow technology. This information could also be used by management to design more equitable workflow technology.