Multi-purpose place-based display systems: implications from current practices with non-digital displays

In this work, we seek to inform the design of general purpose place-based display systems by studying current usage of non-digital displays in semi-public places. We have studied 27 places of various types, analysing their visual display elements and uncovering the key motivations and the main practices behind those non-digital displays. A first result was the identification of a comprehensive set of usage dimensions that provides structure to reason about the design of place-based digital displays as multi-purpose channels. We have also identified fundamental embedded practices that may be leveraged for the design of digital displays. In particular, we have shown that external content plays a key role in place-based communication. Consequently, the ability to support low barrier access to the many external media sources that represent the social, community and business connections of a place should be seen as a fundamental enabler for effective place-based digital display systems.