Video data and video links in mediated communication: what do users value?

Most studies of video-mediated, computer-supported cooperative work have investigated the impact of video conference communication links between users. Fewer studies have explored the use of multimedia systems which provide video data. In our study, the perceived benefits of these two sorts of video provision have been directly compared. We explored how users rate the value and usefulness of video links and video data in the same collaborative task, where the video links and data were delivered at different frame rates. Our comparisons of the perceived relative values of teledata and telepresence are based on the responses of 117 users each of whom took part in a session lasting around 45 min in one of the two simulations. Both studies manipulated the quality of multimedia delivery for telepresence and teledata in the same way. The simulations were: (i) the Travel Service Simulation where participants plan a holiday itinerary and (ii) the Financial Service Simulation where participants choose a property and arrange an appropriate mortgage. Participants produced very similar ratings for the perceived quality of the telepresence and the teledata. Subjects across both studies were also in broad agreement on the relative usefulness of the various kinds of multimedia data, teledata being regarded as generally more useful than telepresence. Subjects in both studies tended to rank teledata high in terms of(a) what was most useful, (b) what was the most important feature to preserve and (c) what was the most important to improve. For these multimedia customer services, teledata is more highly valued by users than telepresence. Within such complex multimedia applications, the indication for service delivery then is that, if bandwidth is limited, it would be better assigned to teledata services than to telepresence. (C) 2000 Academic Press.