Interim Report Chapter 1: Merboard Analysis by Functionality

Introduction This report contains an analysis of MERBoard use primarily during the nominal and extended Mars Exploration Rover missions. It incorporates data based on open-ended interviews and conversations with 14 mission scientists and engineers on the Spirit and Opportunity, as well as seven researchers and designers involved in the development of the MERBoard itself. Conceived largely as an interactive, sharable vertical work surface, the majority of the applications and functionalities developed for the MERBoard, such as MERSpace access, SolTree, and the digital whiteboard were designed to support synchronous collaborative activity. In retrospect, the general perception of MERBoard by both the users of the system and designers who observed the system in use was that MERBoard was an underemployed tool that was not used to its full potential. It may, however, that this perception is in part because MERBoard was perceived as an interactive tool that was not frequently used for explicit interaction.