Traditional wall-sized displays mostly only support side-by-side co-located collaboration, while transparent displays naturally support face-to-face interaction. Many previous works assume transparent displays support collaboration. Yet it is unknown how exactly its afforded face-to-face interaction can support loose or close collaboration, especially compared to the side-by-side configuration offered by traditional large displays. In this paper, we used an established experimental task that operationalizes different collaboration coupling and layout locality, to compare pairs of participants collaborating side-by-side versus face-to-face in each collaborative situation. We compared quantitative measures and collected interview and observation data to further illustrate and explain our observed user behavior patterns. The results showed that the unique face-to-face collaboration brought by transparent display can result in more efficient task performance, different territorial behavior, and both positive and negative collaborative factors. Our findings provided empirical understanding about the collaborative experience supported by wall-sized transparent displays and shed light on its future design.

翻译：传统墙壁大小的显示器大多只支持侧侧并肩合作,而透明显示自然支持面对面互动。许多先前的工作假设透明显示支持协作。但尚不清楚其提供的面对面互动究竟如何支持松散或密切的协作,特别是与传统大型显示器提供的侧侧配置相比。在本文中,我们利用一个既定的实验任务,将不同的合作组合和布局地点投入运行,对在每种协作情况下进行对齐对齐协作的参与者进行对比。我们比较了定量措施以及收集的访谈和观察数据,以进一步说明和解释我们观察到的用户行为模式。结果显示,透明显示带来的独特的面对面合作可以导致更高效的任务表现、不同的领土行为以及积极和消极的协作因素。我们的调查结果提供了对由墙尺寸透明显示器支持的合作经验的理解,并揭示了未来设计。