| Abstract |
Novel social, civic or entertainment opportunities might emerge when spatially distributed public displays become interlinked in meaningful ways. Yet little is still known about the effect of intrinsic design dimensions, such as how multiple displays should be spatially arranged, how their content should be linked, and how their locations and content should dynamically change over time. We therefore conducted a two-month long design study of a distributed public display system that invited passers-by to answer hyperlocal questions. By comparing the performance of different content and location arrangement strategies, we reveal distinct spatiotemporal user engagement patterns, and the specific local conditions that shaped them. We also discovered several contextual factors that inhibit more widescale engagement, among which the conceptual novelty, the apparent purpose, and the perceived cumulative effort to engage with several displays. Consequently, this study provides insights on how public displays can be linked to augment the effects of distribution. © 2019 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). |
