User requirements for a web based spreadsheet-mediated collaboration

This paper reports the initial results of a research project to investigate how to develop a web based spreadsheet mediated business collaboration system that could notably enhance the business processes presently carried out by Small to Medium sized Enterprises. Using a scenario-based design approach, a set of user's requirements was extracted from an appropriate field study. These requirements were then analysed in the context of well-known usability principles, and a set of design implications were derived based on a selected set of HCI design patterns related to cooperative interaction design. Starting from that knowledge, suitable interactive collaboration scenarios have been drawn, from which a list of user interface requirements for a web based spreadsheet mediated collaboration system has been formulated.