Development Challenges in Web Apps for Public Displays

Abstract

Digital public displays can have a key role in urban ubiquitous computing infrastructures, but they have not yet managed to fill this role. A key step in that direction would be the emergence of an application model for open display networks that would enable anyone to create applications for display infrastructures. In this work, we study the development of web-based applications for public displays. We report on our experience of application development for real world public deployment and also on an experiment with external web developers to assess their ability to create such applications using our own development tools. The results show that the web-based app model can effectively be used in the context of public displays and that web developers are able to leverage upon their expertise to create this type of applications.

Understanding the use of web technologies for applications in open display networks

“…Our recent study on creating web-based display applications by third party developers [14] uncovers that developers face a set of challenges such as visual adaptation, managing of content and fault tolerance support. In order to leverage on developers' web experience, two conditions are required: 1) provide a clear description on specificities of display applications and 2) provide appropriate tools to facilitate the development process.…”

“…We have developed and deployed multiple display apps based on these properties. These applications were developed as part of our work in Instant Places system [14], a Web-centric platform for place-based screen media.…”