Full Paper at Pervasive 2011

We presented our Full Paper on “Designing Shared Public Display Networks – Implications from Today’s Paper-Based Notice Areas” at the Ninth International Conference on Pervasive Computing in San Francisco, US (full paper).

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.

Additionally we presented a poster on Digifieds, a digital public notice area (poster).

Abstract: Public notice areas are nowadays being widely used in stores, restaurants, cafes and public institutions by customers and visitors to sell or advertise products and upcoming events. Although web platforms such as Craigslist or eBay offer similar services, traditional notice areas are highly popular as using pen and paper poses only a minimal barrier to share content. With public displays proliferating the public space and with means to network these displays, novel opportunities arise as to how information can be managed and shared. In an initial step we systematically assessed factors inhibiting or promoting the shared use of public display space and derived design implications for providing a digital version of such public notice areas. In this poster we report on the implementation of such a digital shared notice area, called Digifieds. With an initial lab study we aimed at understanding suitable means of interaction when it comes to creating, posting, and taking away content.