The puppeteer display

Abstract

We present a wide interactive banner display installed at a city sidewalk and the findings from two long-term field studies investigating the opportunities of public displays to actively shape the audience. In order to improve parallel usage and dissolve crowds, our wide display subtly directs individual users by visual stimuli and manipulates the audience like a puppeteer, thus reversing the notion of adaptive content being implicitly manipulated by the users.We first investigated visual signifiers which attract initial users approaching sideways, and then others, which actively influence user positions and regulate audience constellations. We found that dynamic visual stimuli such as frames and ellipses are effective (1) to direct users in front of the display, (2) to distribute multiple users along the display, (3) static frames are more effective than moving or interactive ones, and (4) these visual stimuli also work indirectly by inducing social pressure among users.

Creating Your Bubble

“…> 8m) are now feasible [22], and it is unclear how user interfaces should evolve to fill the needs of users working on such a large, shared surface. Our research complements research that has explored pedestrian traffic around LPDs [30], how to respond to approaching users [15], and how to manipulate the position of users in-front of the display [3]. Our results suggest that results may vary on larger displays, such as our observed increase in personal space, and demonstrates a need to replicate past results with larger displays.…”

“…However, these behaviours have largely been observed in private or semi-private settings such as offices or laboratories, and often around a shared tabletop [26]. To address this lack of field research, a number of researchers have deployed LPDs in public [3,5,20,22,30]. This research has explored how to design for multi-user interaction for indoor installations [22], how pedestrian traffic is shaped by the introduction of LPDs to public spaces [30], how displays should respond to approaching users [15], and how on-screen content can be used to manipulate the position of users in-front of the display [3].…”

“…To address this lack of field research, a number of researchers have deployed LPDs in public [3,5,20,22,30]. This research has explored how to design for multi-user interaction for indoor installations [22], how pedestrian traffic is shaped by the introduction of LPDs to public spaces [30], how displays should respond to approaching users [15], and how on-screen content can be used to manipulate the position of users in-front of the display [3]. However, little research Notably, Peltonen et al [20] observed interaction with CityWall, a photo-browsing application installed in a shop window over an eight day period, and through a mixed-methods analysis describe aspects of interaction such as turn-taking, expressive on-screen gestures, and concluding actions.…”

“…Finally, research has often focused on large displays that fail to extend beyond Hall's 'social' region of 1.2 -3.6m [3,5,20,30]. However, LPDs that extend to 'public' space (i.e.…”

“…Recent work has developed descriptive theories such as proxemics [2,6] territoriality [25] to facilitate the use of individuals' positions to detect social relationships between nearby users, often leveraging low-cost and easily deployed sensors such as Microsoft's Kinect™. While the importance of these factors have been motivated by many studies in the field [3,5,20,22,30], guidance for how these relationships should translate into practical design considerations is still lacking. That is, how do one's surroundings and task influence their 'personal bubble' when approaching a public display?…”