Exploring the Evolution of Office Door Displays

Abstract

Within the field of ubiquitous computing, many of the issues related to the notion of ‘situated interaction’ remain very much under explored. For example, there is little understanding of the kinds of interactions or uses that are likely to occur when large numbers of interactive displays are publicly situated throughout an office environment. In this chapter, we describe the development, deployment and initial evaluation of the Hermes system, a system that comprises a collection of small interactive display units placed outside a number of offices within a University department. The placement outside offices is enabling us to explore some of the issues, such as appropriation control, that arise when interactive displays are situated in places that exhibit both public and private properties. To date, the development of the system has been guided by the principles of participatory design and our intention is that the use of the Hermes system will continue to evolve over a longitudinal period of time as it is used on a day-to-day basis by university staff and students alike.