Up close and personal

Abstract

Multitouch wall-sized displays afford new forms of collaboration: They can be used up close by several users simultaneously, offer high resolution, and provide sufficient space for intertwining individual and joint work. The difference to displays without these capabilities is not well understood. To better understand the collaboration of groups around high-resolution multitouch wall displays, we conducted an exploratory study. Pairs collaborated on a problem-solving task using a 2.8m × 1.2m multitouch display with 24.8 megapixels. The study examines how participants collaborate; navigate relative to the display and to each other; and interact with and share the display. Participants physically navigated among different parts of the display, switched fluidly between parallel and joint work, and shared the display evenly. The results contrast earlier research that suggests difficulties in sharing and collaborating around wall displays. The study suggests that multitouch wall displays can support different collaboration styles and fluid transitions in group work.