Cognitive effects of interactive public display applications

Abstract

Many public displays are nowadays equipped with different types of sensors. Such displays allow engaging and persistent user experiences to be created, e.g., in the form of gesture-controlled games or content exploration using direct touch at the display. However, as digital displays replace traditional posters and billboards, display owners are reluctant to deploy interactive content, but rather adapt traditional, non-interactive content. The main reason is, that the benefit of such interactive deployments is not obvious. Our hypothesis is that interactivity has a cognitive effect on users and therefore increases the ability to remember what they have seen on the screen -- which is beneficial both for the display owner and the user. In this paper we systematically investigate the impact of interactive content on public displays on the users' cognition in different situations. Our findings indicate that overall memorability is positively affected as users interact. Based on these findings we discuss design implications for interactive public displays.