As large displays become more affordable, researchers investigate their productivity impacts and try to develop techniques for making the large display user experience more effective. Studies show that large displays enable users to create and manage more windows and engage in more complex multitasking behavior. Although recent work demonstrates significant productivity benefits of large shared displays, it shows numerous usability issues because current software design is not scaling well. Therefore, we took steps towards developing two user interface design guidelines for large shared displays.

Specifically, empirical studies have been conducted to compare the effects of large shared display and personal display use. When each of them is used as a secondary display, large shared displays impose increased interruption and comprehension. Empirical and qualitative studies are designed to develop two user interface design guidelines for large shared displays. We designed a system called SuperTrack that uses a large shared display and the proposed guidelines to further enhance team efficiency and productivity in collaborative software development environments. Finally, an in-situ evaluation assesses the benefits of SuperTrack. Results show that exposing software development team members to a large shared display through SuperTrack leads to more communication among the members and improved group awareness — leading to increased productivity and efficiency.