project goal

Advances in flat panel displays and graphics cards now enable personal computers with 6-8 monitors and may soon eliminate seams in the display. Progress in information visualization and in our understanding of human-information interactions provides a new design space for cognitive workspaces on wideband displays. Such interfaces could radically improve productivity in many knowledge management tasks, analogous to the improved productivity of a craftsman who has the right tools and an ample workbench. Seamless wideband displays will be available in the next decade with costs driven down by computer gaming, entertainment, and teleconferencing.

Wideband visual interfaces fill the human visual field, creating new opportunities for user interface design. The research is exploring a design space that involves human abilities and emerging technologies.

On the human side, a longitudinal field study of window activity has found that windows almost always filled a typical single monitor display and that subjects occasionally struggled with window thrashing when they needed to work with two or more windows at the same time [35]. To address these findings, we can take advantage of the human ability to shift attention rapidly across a field of view greater than 180 degrees using eye and head movements. Larger displays will allow windows to be larger and they will reduce window thrashing by allowing people to work simultaneously with multiple windows. People also have complementary capabilities in the foveal and peripheral regions of their eyes, expanding the design space for our interfaces. The fovea is in the center of the visual field and is sensitive to color and small features, which are emphasized by the established windows paradigm. Peripheral vision covers a much larger area with lower acuity and is sensitive to motion rather than color. Studies by Bartram have recently shown that animation can be effective in human peripheral vision for information visualization (Bartram, L. (2001) Enhancing Information Visualization with Motion. PhD dissertation, Simon Fraser University, Canada). Wideband displays open up the possibility of creating new user interface techniques to optimize human cognitive performance by using animation to exploit the motion sensitivity of human peripheral vision.

On the technology side, vendors have made multiple-monitor systems for many years. However, our interfaces have been stuck in a 30-year old windows paradigm focused on displays much smaller than the physical desktops we use when working with paper. Advances in flat panel displays and graphics cards now enable affordable personal computers with 6-8 monitors and may soon eliminate seams between multiple monitors. Rather than waiting for commercial seamless displays, I have developed various techniques for mitigating seams that would otherwise create discontinuities in text and graphics.

My initial experience with a multiple-monitor system suggests that larger workspaces enhance three common activities: 1) multiple window tasks, such as reading and writing or programming, 2) large window tasks, such as spreadsheets and maps, and 3) multi-tasking, such as interruptions involving email or personal information. Research is needed to unlock the potential of wideband visual interfaces. Visual search takes more time and effort on large displays. Given my experience with graphical design spaces, I plan to support visual search with carefully designed graphics and interactive animation. Animation, in particular, is very effective in human peripheral vision. However, our Fluid Document study as well as Bartram’s research shows that careful research is needed to enhance user performance rather than disrupt it.

Wideband Displays: Mitigating Multiple Monitor Seams. Mackinlay, J.D., Heer, J.. In CHI 2004 Extended Abstracts.

Log-based Logitudinal Study Finds Window Thrashing. Mackinlay, J.D., Royer, C.. In CHI 2004 Extended Abstracts.

                                                                                                        more publications

                                             wideband visual interfaces in the news

Sidebar: Virtual Desktops Get Bigger                           1/04 ComputerWorld
The Palo Alto Research Center is working on a new user interface that it says will make the virtual desktop as useful as the physical desktop. It will reflect the way people actually work, rather than making people adapt their workstyles to a computer's quirks.

  
  A3I cognitive task analysis

  Jock Mackinlay , Stuart Card, Jeff Heer, Christiaan Royer