Presented in Urban Screens Conference, October 2007, Manchester.

1. Engaging with Cultural
Content on Ambient
Displays
Areti Galani
ICCHS, Newcastle University

2. Motivation
• Understanding the situation
• Calm technology
..as opposed to infrastructure-driven application
• Cultural content
…but not necessarily an art installation

3. Setting – Campus Coffee Café

5. Ethnographic approach
• In-situ brief questionnaires
• Observations
• Space usage snapshots
• Focus groups
– Perceptions
– Design ideas

6. Event recommendations
Live object interpretation
Blogboard

7. Spatial considerations
• Ambient display
• Position in the space & lighting
– Visibility
– Readability
– Just over 40% of the customers sit facing the
screen
• Competition with other features of the
space
– Blackboards

8. Use
• Opportunistic
– Moment-long/glancing
• The ‘fish tank’ effect
(moving image attraction)
– Passer-bys
• In the fringes of main activity
– On the way to places (e.g.
the loo)
– While queuing
• A reminder/prompt
– Complementary function

9. Sense of place
• ‘European feeling’
– ‘Relaxed but smart’
• Informal & social
– A place to meet friends
• Public but also institutional
– In the city and in the university
– Boundary space
• Diverse & multicultural

10. Content & Interaction
• ‘Screen=information’
– Peripheral participation
• Cultural
– Current approach = good approach
– No advertising
– No sound
• Relevant to place
– Primacy of social function
– Moderation

11. What’s next?
• Explore the boundaries of people’s
interaction with calm technology
– Mobile phones
• Explore ownership of content
– Issues of privacy and moderation

12. Acknowledgements
All staff and customers of Campus Coffee Café
Student Union, Newcastle University
Areti Galani
areti.galani@ncl.ac.uk
Chris Kray
c.kray@ncl.ac.uk
Keith Cheverest
kc@comp.lancs.ac.uk