Exploding the frame: designing for wall-size computer displays

High-resolution wall-size digital displays present significant new and different visual space to show and see imagery. The author has been working with two wall-size digital displays at Princeton University for five years and directing and producing IMAX films for a decade, and he has noted some unique design considerations for creating effective visual images when they are spread across entire walls. The author suggests these "frameless" screens - where images are so large we need to look around to see the entire field - need different ways of thinking about image design and visualization. Presenting such things as scale and detail take on new meaning when they can be displayed life-size and not shown in the context of one or many small frames such as we see everywhere. These design ideas will be of use for pervasive computing, interface research and design, interactive design, control design, representations of massive data sets, and creating effective displays of data for research and education.