ABSTRACT
This graduation project describes the trend of working anytime, everywhere, with anyone, which gives input to a design of an interactive wall at the workplace which supports ad hoc encounters. The problem that arises with this trend is that people have less informal encounters. It is known that a lot of things arc getting done by this ad hoc communication. Research is conducted among consultants of Microsoft to understand better what actually happens during thesc informal encounters. The design vision is to use the serendipity of face-to-face ad hoc meetings by spontaneously showing information about contexts of related people. The final design is an interactive visualization which recognizes a person passing by and it shows contexts of people who might be interesting for that person. A test was setup at a Microsoft office (Schiphol, the Netherlands) to see how people respond to the
design. Results showed that the design was perceived well amongst employees but there were sevcral points of improvement concerning usability issues.
