Investigating diverse Trace motion patterns as informative cues in the far periphery

• We investigate Trace patterns of common geometric shapes and diverse directional lines. • Diverse Trace patterns can be easily distinguished in the far periphery. • We explore using Trace to convey diverse secondary information in a simulated driving scenario. • Trace is more noticeable, understandable, comfortable, and less distracting than Blink. • We provide implications for future motion graphic design in peripheral displays. Far periphery visual fields (≥ 60° eccentricities) offer great potential for designing informative peripheral displays. While Field of View (FOV) of various displays begins to push the boundary beyond far periphery, the potential of using the far periphery to encode and convey diverse information remains underexplored. Therefore, this study aims to provide information in far periphery, particularly for secondary tasks by investigating the possibility of using diverse Trace motion patterns. Each trace is generated by a small dot (1°-3°) moving across frames. We investigate the perception of geometric shape traces and directional line traces, revealing a mean accuracy of 92.7% for 12 geometric shapes and 95.7% for 64 directional lines at approximately 10° size at 60° eccentricity. We then select 22 Trace patterns and evaluate their effectiveness compared with Blink in conveying diverse secondary information in a driving scenario, a typical visually intensive task with high cognitive workload. The results demonstrate that Trace is generally more noticeable, understandable, comfortable, and less distracting to the primary task. Taken together, we suggest that diverse Trace motion patterns can be easily distinguished and are effective in presenting information in the far periphery. We discuss our findings and provide design implications for future motion graphic design in peripheral displays.