Sustaining Engagement at Public Shared Interfaces

One of the challenges in developing public displays for urban settings is that the seductiveness for passers-by can quickly wear off. People often spend only a short time at the displays, and then rarely return. Two reasons might contribute to this: the content in the display, and the possibilities for interaction with the display, either solo or in groups. In this paper, we seek to understand how to better manage content and interactions and this way sustain engagement beyond the initial excitement. We introduce activities that require mental energy and ‘stretch’ users to learn skills of increasingly difficulty.