On designing interactivity awareness for ambient displays

In the not-so-distant world in which ambient displays will likely become prevalent, immediate awareness of their interaction affordances to passerbies will be decisive for their usability. However, how to address awareness at user perception level represents a challenge for which little progress has been made so far in contrast with considerable advances in designing interaction techniques for such displays. Even though many interactive ambient displays exist with properly designed interfaces, people may not always be aware of their interactivity. This work addresses the problem of interactivity awareness by focusing on two important questions: How can people tell whether a public display is interactive or not? and, assuming interactivity, How can people tell what the interface is? A study was conducted in order to investigate factors potentially related to perceived interactivity. Results show that people’s evaluations are correct in most cases but they also tend to form incorrect perceptions in many other situations. We found that location, installation, reachability, and displayed content are factors that can influence people’s perceptions. Our findings are complemented with a discussion of techniques that can be used in the practice of designing for interactivity awareness.