Comparing awareness and distraction between desktop and peripheral-vision displays

Abstract

We tested a peripheral-vision display to provide users with awareness of others and their level of interest in interaction in an experiment where participants had to be aware of a simulated workgroup during a visually-demanding primary task. Participants gathered more information from the peripheral-vision display although they attended to it significantly less often (less than half the number of glances, and less than a third of the total time spent looking). Our results suggest that the peripheral-vision space around the user is a valuable resource for awareness and communication systems.