Passenger Perceptions, Information Preferences, and Usability of Crowding Visualizations on Public Displays in Transit Stations and Vehicles

Large crowds in public transit stations and vehicles introduce obstacles for wayfinding, hygiene, and physical distancing. Public displays that currently provide on-site transit information could also provide critical crowdedness information. Therefore, we examined people's crowd perceptions and information preferences before and during the pandemic, and designs for visualizing crowdedness to passengers. We first report survey results with public transit users (n = 303), including the usability results of three crowdedness visualization concepts. Then, we present two animated crowd simulations on public displays that we evaluated in a field study (n = 44). We found that passengers react very positively to crowding information, especially before boarding a vehicle. Visualizing the exact physical spaces occupied on transit vehicles was most useful for avoiding crowded areas. However, visualizing the overall fullness of vehicles was the easiest to understand. We discuss design implications for communicating crowding information to support decision-making and promote a sense of safety. © 2023 ACM.

Towards Engaging Intangible Holographic Public Displays

Public displays are some of the most challenging interfaces to design because of two key characteristics. First, the experience should be engaging, to attract and maintain users' attention. Second, the interaction with the display should be natural, meaning that users should be able to receive the desired output with little or no training. Holographic displays are increasingly popular in public spaces such as museums and concert halls but there is little published research on users' experiences with such displays. Previous research has suggested both tangible and intangible inputs as engaging and natural options for holographic displays, but there is no conclusive evidence on their relative merits. Hence, we run a study to investigate the user experience with a holographic display comparing the level of engagement and feeling of natural experience in the interacting process. We used a mix of surveys, interviews, video recordings, and task-based metrics to measure users' performance on a specific task, the perceived usability, and levels of engagement and satisfaction. Our findings suggest that a tangible input was reported as more natural than the intangible one, however, both tangible and intangible inputs were found to be equally engaging. The latter findings contribute to the efforts of designing intangible public holographic displays and other interactive systems that take into consideration health safety issues, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic era in which contamination can be established with tangible and physical interaction between users and public displays, yet without affecting the level of engagement compared to the tangible experience. © 2022 IEEE.

Pandemic Displays: Considering Hygiene on Public Touchscreens in the Post-Pandemic Era

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented questions for touch-based public displays regarding hygiene, risks, and general awareness. We study how people perceive and consider hygiene on shared touchscreens, and how touchscreens could be improved through hygiene-related functions. First, we report the results from an online survey (n = 286). Second, we present a hygiene concept for touchscreens that visualizes prior touches and provides information about the cleaning of the display and number of prior users. Third, we report the feedback for our hygiene concept from 77 participants. We find that there is demand for improved awareness of public displays' hygiene status, especially among those with stronger concerns about COVID-19. A particularly desired detail is when the display has been cleaned. For visualizing prior touches, fingerprints worked best. We present further considerations for designing for hygiene on public displays. © 2022 ACM.

The Renal Community Photo Initiative: A Program Report in Ontario, Canada.

Purpose of Program: We initiated the Renal Community Photo Initiative to better understand why some hemodialysis users express significant capacities for resilience and hope, demonstrating outward-looking perspectives and enjoying a rich quality of life. Sources of Information: "Photovoice" is a participatory research methodology that encourages individuals to develop positive self-perceptions with photography. Photovoice empowers participants as informants within their communities. Visual arts researchers surveyed existing Photovoice studies to identify gaps in knowledge to be addressed in this study, including challenges related to fostering participant agency and social action. Images and logs were collected and reviewed during organized, participant-led substudy groups. These meetings provided researchers with core study values and direction as to how the images and additional information should be used to raise awareness about living with chronic kidney disease. Methods: To address the complexity of the human condition, the Renal Community Photo Initiative offered participants an array of diverse and accessible image-making techniques. No narrative directives for image-making were provided. This qualitative, interdisciplinary, participant-centric study invited adult chronic hemodialysis patients in 4 dialysis units in London and Stratford, Ontario, to participate. The research team designed a selection of different, accessible photo technologies for participant use. Eligible participants were invited to select photographic technologies and given the additional option to write accompanying logs. Researchers organized substudy meetings for participant-led focus groups to discuss core study values and personal encounters with images and image-making. Participants directed how their generated images should be shared with the public and researchers. Key Findings: A total of 40 participants have been recruited to date, producing more than 1600 images and an archive of handwritten logs. Three participant-led focus groups have established priorities for image sharing and a core set of values for subsequent study phases. A series of public presentations of participant images took place. The research team will pursue further public presentation opportunities and the development of a suitable research database. Limitations: Organizing and categorizing images for access in an interdisciplinary research database remains a challenge. Current health and safety protocols related to COVID-19 require the study to pause recruitment and substudy meetings and reassess immediate outputs for visuals. Implications: A qualitative study of this scope offers a new model for participant agency and collaboration. It requires the onboarding of interdisciplinary researchers to effectively engage with its significant image and log archive. Participants should remain involved in directing future steps for disseminating their images. Following substudy directives, researchers are developing visuals for health care and public settings, and determining opportunities for participants to share their experience in both clinic- and public-based settings.

Objectif du programme: Nous avons lancé la Renal Community Photo Initiative afin de mieux comprendre pourquoi certains utilisateurs de l'hémodialyse font preuve d'importantes capacités de résilience et d'espoir, sont tournés vers le monde extérieur et jouissent d'une riche qualité de vie. Sources: « Photovoice ¼ est une méthodologie de recherche participative qui encourage les individus à développer une perception de soi positive grâce à la photographie. Photovoice permet aux participants de devenir des informateurs au sein de leurs communautés. Les chercheurs en arts visuels ont mené une enquête sur les études existantes de Photovoice afin de révéler les lacunes dans les connaissances qui pourraient être comblées par la présente étude, notamment les défis liés à la promotion de la participation et de l'action sociale des participants. Des images et des registres ont été recueillis et examinés lors de sous-groupes d'étude organisés et dirigés par les participants par les participants. Ces réunions ont permis aux chercheurs de définir les valeurs fondamentales de l'étude et d'indiquer comment utiliser les images et les autres informations pour sensibiliser les gens à la vie avec maladie rénale chronique. Méthodologie: Afin d'aborder la complexité de la condition humaine, la Renal Community Photo Initiative a offert aux participants une gamme diverse et accessible de techniques de création d'images. Aucune directive narrative n'a été fournie pour la création des images. Cette étude qualitative, interdisciplinaire et axée sur les participants a invité des adultes suivant des traitements d'hémodialyse chronique dans quatre unités de dialyse de London et Stratford (Ontario) à participer. L'équipe de recherche a conçu une sélection de technologies photographiques diverses et accessibles à l'usage des participants. Les participants admissibles ont été invités à choisir des technologies photographiques et à tenir un journal s'ils le souhaitaient. Les chercheurs ont organisé des réunions de sous-étude pour des groupes de discussion dirigés par les participants afin de discuter des valeurs fondamentales de l'étude et des expériences personnelles avec les images et la création d'images. Les participants ont établi la façon dont leurs images devraient être partagées avec le public et les chercheurs. Principaux résultats: À ce jour, 40 participants ont été recrutés et plus de 1 600 images ont été produites, de même qu'une archive de journaux manuscrits. Trois groupes de discussion dirigés par les participants ont établi les priorités pour le partage des images ainsi qu'un ensemble de valeurs fondamentales en vue des phases ultérieures de l'étude. Plusieurs présentations publiques des images des participants ont eu lieu. L'équipe de recherche poursuivra les présentations publiques et l'élaboration d'une base de données de recherche. Limites: L'organisation et la catégorisation des images pour y accéder dans une base de données de recherche interdisciplinaire demeurent un défi. Les protocoles actuels de santé et de sécurité liés à la COVID-19 empêchent le recrutement et les réunions de sous-étude pour le moment et imposent de réévaluer les résultats immédiats pour les visuels. Conclusion: Une étude qualitative de cette envergure offre un nouveau modèle pour la participation et collaboration des patients. Elle exige l'intégration de chercheurs interdisciplinaires afin d'exploiter efficacement ses importantes archives d'images et de journaux. Il importe que les participants demeurent impliqués dans la direction des prochaines étapes de diffusion de leurs images. Suivant les directives de la sous-étude, les chercheurs développent des visuels pour les soins de santé et les milieux publics, et recensent les occasions pour les participants de partager leur expérience tant dans les milieux cliniques que publics.

Exploring the Design Space of Headphones as Wearable Public Displays

The need for online meetings increased drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wearing headphones for this purpose makes it difficult to know when a headphone wearing person is available or in a meeting. In this work, we explore the design possibilities of headphones as wearable public displays to show the current status or additional information of the wearer to people nearby. After two brainstorming sessions and specifying the design considerations, we conducted an online survey with 63 participants to collect opinions of potential users. Besides the preference of the colors red and green as well as using text to indicate availability, we found that only 54 % of our participants would actually wear headphones with public displays attached. The benefit of seeing the current availability status of a headphone-wearing person in an online meeting or phone call scenario were nonetheless mentioned even by participants that would not use such headphones. © 2022 ACM.

Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era

Due to public concerns over touch-based disease transmission, tangible and embedded interfaces are perhaps the most unsuited technology during a pandemic. Even so, this case study documents the development and evaluation of such a system from early 2020 when people were told to avoid actions that might spread the virus (e.g., touch). Adding to the challenge, the Lookout was installed outside in a city centre for widespread public use. Despite these challenges, a COVID-safe touchable device was embedded and extensively used. This Case Study reports the co-creation of the device noting COVID restriction adaptations over a nine-month deployment. Our contributions are twofold: the study acts as a case-point of the impact of the unique COVID design context, with lessons for future pandemic scenarios;and, given we had over 10,000 users at a time when people were cautious about using shared devices or services, we surface some design characteristics that can promote the use of public technology. © 2022 Owner/Author.