Collaboration at Workplace: Technology Design Challenges of Segregated Work Environments

Modern day job roles require extensive collaboration and peer help among employees at workplace to optimally perform their duties. Inherently, the collaborative work requires extensive coordination mechanisms to improve the collaboration process. The diffusion of technologies in the collaboration process has improved the coordination among actors, however, it requires appropriated technological solutions which are aligned with the work practices of users. In this paper we explore the communication challenges in gender segregated work environments and discuss the design implications for technological systems to better support the collaborative process in such workplaces. Our study highlights how cultural implications, information security and trust are vital elements of effective communication in segregated work environments. Keeping this in view human computer interaction researchers need to design collaborative artifacts which can resolve these issues to enable better collaboration in such settings.