by Fabian Göbel
Over the last years, display screens have drastically improved not only with respect to resolution but also in terms of dimension. Many applications utilize this space for presenting more information as well as to support multiple task by still applying conventional UI paradigms. Considering peoples visual focus of attention to be limited by human factors, intelligent UIs have to be developed to take better advantage of the gained space. This work investigates, using the visual periphery for displaying information while focusing on a primary task. Based on the understanding of the human visual system, vital aspects for perceiving information within the field of view have been tested in a lab study. The outcome indicates that secondary information can be quickly and reliably perceived in the periphery without significantly affecting a primary task. Carefully considering the study results and the participants’ feedback, a concept for a novel visual attentive UI is elaborated. It combines eye tracking with intelligent UI adaptions to make more information perceivable without affecting the primary task performance and thus, use huge displays more efficiently.
