Four Lessons from Traditional MDEs

While many researchers are interested in developing and designing technologies for multiple-display environments (MDEs), a core problem remains: we do not fully understand the role these display technologies can play in real-world activities. Our approach has been to study traditional MDEs (i.e. offices and laboratory environments) to understand both the tasks supported by traditional displays, and the roles the displays play in these tasks. We discuss a set of lessons from studies of traditional displays, and discuss how designers of MDEs can learn from these lessons in their designs. In so doing, we contribute to the growing understanding of the potential role of MDEs in supporting real-world work, and MDE design. ACM Classification