Designing Shared Public Display Networks – Implications from Today’s Paper-Based Notice Areas

Abstract

Abstract. Large public displays have become a regular conceptual element in many shops and businesses, where they advertise products or highlight upcoming events. In our work, we are interested in exploring how these isolated display solutions can be interconnected to form a single large network of public displays, thus supporting novel forms of sharing access to display real estate. In order to explore the feasibility of this vision, we investigated today's practices surrounding shared notice areas, i.e. places where customers and visitors can put up event posters and classifieds, such as shop windows or notice boards. In particular, we looked at the content posted to such areas, the means for sharing it (i.e., forms of content control), and the reason for providing the shared notice area. Based on two-week long photo logs and a number of in-depth interviews with providers of such notice areas, we provide a systematic assessment of factors that inhibit or promote the shared use of public display space, ultimately leading to a set of concrete design implication for providing future digital versions of such public notice areas in the form of networked public displays.

Interaction techniques for creating and exchanging content with public displays

“…Previous work has identified the following reasons [3]: on one hand, PNAs have a strong local character, often addressing certain communities only. By contrast, web-based platforms allow a large number of people to be reached, even at a distance.…”

“…To include all interaction techniques 3 , each task combined a set of three techniques (one each for creating, posting, and retrieving content). We used a within-subject design.…”

“…The task order and the topics were counter-balanced. 3 Note, that the alphanumeric code techniques was not evaluated. We included it later as a substitute for the phone/display touch feature during a deployment on capacitive displays.…”

Consequences of content diversity for online public spaces for local communities

“…Based on observation of bulletin boards in three local areas in California and interviews with residents, Churchill et al [10] concluded that bulletin boards serve as a communication media to seek and advertise (1) viewpoints, (2) activities, (3) events and (4) services. In another observational study, Alt et al [4] determined that there is an interplay among a bulletin board's location, its stakeholders (the manager, the content providers and the viewers) and its content. Content that has no relation to the location is rarely posted.…”

Understanding future challenges for networked public display systems in community settings

“…For example, Alt et al's Digifieds [2] provide a digital version of a more traditional paper based public notice areas [3]. Their system allows posting and viewing of classifieds on a public display network, while at the same time preserving locality and local nature of postings.…”