How Can Head Worn Displays and Tablet Computers Affect Co-located Work: A Laboratory-Based Exploratory Study

Abstract

Head-worn displays (HWDs) have shown promise for supporting workers in a range of contexts due to their ability to provide live ‘heads up and hands free’ information. However, in many work environments co-located workers may need to collaborate and communicate about the tasks that they are engaged with, and this may be difficult when information is presented privately on a HWD. The current study explored a laboratory-based dual-task game for evaluating how presenting task-relevant information HWDs versus tablet computers can affect the process of collaborative and mobile work. We found no effects of display type on performance, perhaps because ten of the twelve participating dyads allocated tasks in a way that minimised the need to communicate about the displayed information. We suggest that future research focusses on specific features of HWDs, and/or how representative teams adapt to the constraints of HWDs.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Müller-Tomfelde

Schremmer

Wessels

(2007). Exploratory study on concurrent interaction in co-located collaboration. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 19th Australasian conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Entertaining User Interfaces, Adelaide, Australia. doi:10.1145/1324892.1324925

Wille

Grauel

Adolph

(2013). Strain caused by head mounted displays. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Europe Chapter 2013 Annual Conference.