Using public displays to stimulate passive engagement, active engagement, and discovery in public spaces
Nemanja Memarović, Marc Langheinrich, Florian Alt, Ivan Elhart, Simo Johannes Hosio, Elisa Rubegni · 2012
In their influential book "Public space" Carr et al. describe essential human needs that public spaces fulfill: (1) passive engagement with the environment, where we observe what others are doing; (2) active engagement through intellectual challenges posed by the space, or through engagement with the people in it; and (3) excitement of novel discoveries within the space. An often underused resource in public spaces -- public displays -- can be used to stimulate these needs. In this paper we argue for a new research direction that explores how public displays can stimulate such essential needs in public spaces. We describe and conceptualize related processes that occur around public displays, based on in-depth observations of people interacting with a publicly fielded display application in a city center. Our conceptualization is meant to lay the foundations for designing engaging public display systems that stimulate PACD, and for supporting the analysis of existing deployments.