Additional thoughts about enticing people to interact with large public displays in public spaces

This post is in response to:

Brignull, H. and Rogers, Y.
Enticing People to Interact with Large Public Displays in Public Spaces.
Human-Computer Interaction, (2003).

Reading the two study cases carefully, I find some additional thoughts that might be interesting.

* Give a simple but clear idea what the thing is about

Observed in Study 1, people were wary about going to Opinionizer because they were "concerned that it might involve too much time or effort, or that it would involve looking stupid in public...". These concerns have little to do with the actual system as people had not actually known the system. In other words, they needed to have a simple and clear idea about what this thing is about before they consider to participate or not. Imagine you are in a party and see a screen filled with stuff that makes no sense to you, compared to another one clearly informing you, say, "this is where people share their opinions". With which one would you have more concerns and wariness?

* Use the other participants as the media

Apart from the display itself, there can be some other medium conveying information to people. For example, there can be helpers, manually inviting people to participate. Observed in the Study 1, "they appeared to have picked up this knowledge through observing over the shoulder of others...". Is it possible to use the existing participants as a third media to convey information to those not yet participating? In this sense, the display should encourage participants to express himself or communicate with other participants.

* Taking into account the honey pot effect

Honey pot effect can be bad in that it limits the number of people to participate the activity. It acts as a physical barrier between the three "activity areas". ("I really want to give a go but I just cannot approach it. Someone's in my way.") As possibly a problem as it is, it is also more about the environmental design of the display (how to set up the space) while might also have something to about the display content (do not make participants indulged in it).

* Taking into account different personalities

Observed in Study 2, people show concerns about public embarrassment. However, is this possibly related to people's personality? There must be some kinds of people who are keen to get into such activity, regardless of any such concerns. Meanwhile there are also some people, no matter what the display is about, never willing to be part of it. Is it necessary to analyze target participants' personalities?

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