FlexiGroups: binding mobile devices for collaborative interactions in medium-sized groups with device touch

We present a touch-based method for binding mobile devices for collaborative interactions in a group of collocated users. The method is highly flexible, enabling a broad range of different group formation strategies. We report an evaluation of the method in medium-sized groups of six users. When forming a group, the participants primarily followed viral patterns where they opportunistically added other participants to the group without advance planning. The participants also suggested a number of more systematic patterns, which required the group to agree on a common strategy but then provided a clear procedure to follow. The flexibility of the method allowed the participants to adapt it to the changing needs of the situation and to recover from errors and technical problems. Overall, device binding in medium-sized groups was found to be a highly collaborative group activity and the binding methods should pay special attention to supporting groupwork and social interactions.