Side-by-Side vs Face-to-Face: Evaluating Colocated Collaboration via a Transparent Wall-sized Display

TL;DR

This study compares face-to-face and side-by-side collaboration on transparent wall displays, revealing that face-to-face interaction can enhance efficiency and influence territorial behavior, informing future display design.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into how transparent displays support face-to-face collaboration and compares it with traditional side-by-side setups.

Findings

Face-to-face collaboration improves task efficiency.

Distinct territorial behaviors observed in face-to-face settings.

Both positive and negative factors influence collaboration quality.

Abstract

Traditional wall-sized displays mostly only support side-by-side co-located collaboration, while transparent displays naturally support face-to-face interaction. Many previous works assume transparent displays support collaboration. Yet it is unknown how exactly its afforded face-to-face interaction can support loose or close collaboration, especially compared to the side-by-side configuration offered by traditional large displays. In this paper, we used an established experimental task that operationalizes different collaboration coupling and layout locality, to compare pairs of participants collaborating side-by-side versus face-to-face in each collaborative situation. We compared quantitative measures and collected interview and observation data to further illustrate and explain our observed user behavior patterns. The results showed that the unique face-to-face collaboration brought by transparent display can result in more efficient task performance, different territorial behavior, and both positive and negative collaborative factors. Our findings provided empirical understanding about the collaborative experience supported by wall-sized transparent displays and shed light on its future design.