Identifying mutual engagement

Mutual engagement occurs when people creatively spark together and enter a state of group flow. We present a characterisation of mutually engaging interaction, discuss design features which contribute to mutually engaging interactions, and identify a set of measures for identifying mutual engagement in collaboration. A collaborative music editor's interface features are systematically manipulated in an empirical study of their effect on mutual engagement. The results of the study show that providing shared annotation mechanisms and awareness of identity of others significantly increases mutually engaging interaction.