Put them where? Towards guidelines for positioning large displays in interactive workspaces

Multiple large displays are being increasingly used in interactive workspaces to enhance individual and group work. However, little research has been conducted to determine whether various configurations of large displays impact users or their tasks differently. We show that such an impact exists, and take steps towards developing guidelines for how to effectively arrange large displays in interactive workspaces. For two large displays, we manipulated their physical separation, angle between them, and symmetry when facing each other and measured time on task, subjective workload, and satisfaction for application relocation tasks. From the results, we produced three useful guidelines: (i) displays can be separated on a horizontal plane up to a subtended visual angle of 45°, (ii) a display should not be placed behind a user, but if necessary, it should be offset relative to the user, and (iii) displays should be positioned at a 45° angle relative to each other rather than being orthogonal. As the use of large displays is increasing, these guidelines should have a broad, practical impact.