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M. Pohl:
"Organising Information on Big Walls - Human Perception and Large Displays";
in: "Collaborative Human-Computer Interaction with Big Wall Displays - BigWallHCI2013", herausgegeben von: Rester, M., et al; Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2013, (eingeladen), ISBN: 978-92-79-34935-5, S. 9 - 11.

Large displays raise challenging new questions concerning interface design. Some of these issues are known from interface design of desktop computers, but become more conspicuous in this context. One of the major problems is related to the fact that humans only perceive a small part of their environment (inattentional blindness, change blindness). This was already relevant for displays of desktop computers, but is an essential aspect for the design of large displays. Just because of the size of such displays, it is impossible to see everything on the screen and detect every change. An important feature of large displays is that they often support group activities. This implies that several different people might change the contents of the screen. Thereby, the problem of change blindness is increased because users also have to keep track of changes initiated by other persons.
Another issue is related to the usage of space as a metaphor. This issue was already discussed in the context of hypertext (see e.g. Pohl 2003). Space is a very powerful metaphor because human beings are used to navigation in space. People often organise their materials in the "real world" according to location in space (for a discussion of this issue see e.g. Dutke 1994). Students writing their master´s or doctoral theses often put similar texts on one stack and put these stacks in specific locations on their desks. In a similar manner, users of virtual desktops organise their files on the screen according to their meaning. On small screens the usage of space as a metaphor is limited because of limited screen size. On large displays, there are more possibilities to organise materials according to their content.
In addition, this technology can offer new possibilities. Users can move in front of the display, which is probably a more natural form of perception than sitting in front of a screen. Groups can discuss while standing in front of the display and may adapt the screen collaboratively. Furthermore, some applications, like complex visualisations, need a large display to avoid extensive scrolling or panning.
Possible problems can only be overcome and advantages exploited when these displays are designed appropriately. So far, there are only few recommendations for the design of large displays, but some experience from cognitive psychology and HCI might be used.

perception, large displays, HCI

http://dx.doi.org/10.2788/50183