Attending to large dynamic displays

Although studies have shown that physically large displays bring benefits in performance and user satisfaction, the expanded field-of-view (FOV) places considerably higher demands on our cognitive capacities. Understanding how we process information over a wide FOV is increasingly important to optimize interface design. So far, however, empirical investigations are scarce. We present an experimental paradigm and framework for research with large displays and we report a preliminary experiment that explores attentional performance over a wide FOV. The paradigm simulates aspects of tasks that are facilitated by large displays. Our data suggest that processing abilities in the center and periphery are similar only if distractors are not present. With distractors, peripheral processing is disrupted and performance is poorer than in the center. In general, both accuracy and speed decline if the user must process information simultaneously in both areas. We discuss the implications for interface design, and describe further work that we are planning within this framework.