A Framework for Designing Interfaces in Public Settings

Abstract

This core chapter develops an analytic framework for public interfaces that shows how many current design approaches can be related to one another through a few underlying concepts. In doing so, it draws on studies presented in previous chapters as well as a range of example interfaces and studies of interaction, especially from interactive art and performance. In addition, these observations are developed from collected experiences within the Mixed Reality Laboratory (University of Notting-ham, UK) of working with external artists and performers to stage a series of installations , performances and games over the past decade (including, but not limited to, the events detailed in this book). Although this framework is presented in an analytic and reflective form for the most part within this chapter, it is worth recalling at this point Chap. 1, noting the framework as a way of mapping out a design space, and as a series of constraints and strategies for a variety of different design communities. Moving beyond the analytic nature of the framework, however, will be a topic of discussion within the final chapter. The framework is introduced in this chapter in an incremental manner. The first section (8.1) will develop the observations of Chap. 4, considering interaction with and around the Telescope device in the context of a wider examination of HCI and art literature by performers or about performance and performance-like settings. The discussion thus purposefully moves away from a generic conception of the 'user', at first considering the general roles of performer and spectator through a basic separation of public and private within such settings. (The relevance of 'participant' and 'audience' roles discussed in Chap. 4 as specialisms of 'performer' and 'spec-tator' roles respectively will be addressed shortly.) Of interest is how a performer can express their interactions with an interface, and how a spectator might experience these interactions. This section also breaks down performative action into a performer's manipulations (including gestures around an interface) and effects of those manipulations (including effects reflected back upon the performer). The second section (8.2) revisits the division of public and private, and reviews a wide variety of interactive systems, from mobile devices to interactive installations and performances, in addition to those studies presented earlier. In each system, the section examines how manipulations and effects are variously hidden, partially