Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era

Anna Rose Lucy Carter; Gavin Bailey; Jennifer Pearson; Matt Jones; Simon Robinson; Dani Kalarikalayil Raju; Spencer Winter; Jonathan Lloyd Hicks

doi:10.1145/3491101.3503556

Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era

Anna Rose Lucy Carter, Gavin Bailey, Jennifer Pearson, Matt Jones, Simon Robinson, Dani Kalarikalayil Raju, Spencer Winter, Jonathan Lloyd Hicks

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI EA '22
Subtitle of host publication	Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Editors	Simone Barbosa, Cliff Lampe, Caroline Appert, David A. Shamma
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	ACM
Pages	1-7
Number of pages	7
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450391566
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3503556
Publication status	Published - 28 Apr 2022
Externally published	Yes
Event	2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2022 - New Orleans, United States Duration: 30 Apr 2022 → 5 May 2022

Conference

Conference	2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2022
Country/Territory	United States
City	New Orleans
Period	30/04/22 → 5/05/22

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

co-creation
Human-Computer Interaction
public displays
public engagement

Access to Document

10.1145/3491101.3503556

Cite this

Carter, A. R. L., Bailey, G., Pearson, J., Jones, M., Robinson, S., Raju, D. K., Winter, S., & Hicks, J. L. (2022). Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era. In S. Barbosa, C. Lampe, C. Appert, & D. A. Shamma (Eds.), CHI EA '22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-7). Article 26 ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3503556

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title = "Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era",

abstract = "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.",

keywords = "co-creation, Human-Computer Interaction, public displays, public engagement",

author = "Carter, \{Anna Rose Lucy\} and Gavin Bailey and Jennifer Pearson and Matt Jones and Simon Robinson and Raju, \{Dani Kalarikalayil\} and Spencer Winter and Hicks, \{Jonathan Lloyd\}",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

day = "28",

doi = "10.1145/3491101.3503556",

language = "English",

pages = "1--7",

editor = "Simone Barbosa and Cliff Lampe and Caroline Appert and Shamma, \{David A.\}",

booktitle = "CHI EA '22",

publisher = "ACM",

address = "United States",

note = "2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2022 ; Conference date: 30-04-2022 Through 05-05-2022",

}

Carter, ARL, Bailey, G, Pearson, J, Jones, M, Robinson, S, Raju, DK, Winter, S & Hicks, JL 2022, Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era. in S Barbosa, C Lampe, C Appert & DA Shamma (eds), CHI EA '22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 26, ACM, New York, pp. 1-7, 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2022, New Orleans, United States, 30/04/22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3503556

Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era. / Carter, Anna Rose Lucy; Bailey, Gavin; Pearson, Jennifer et al.
CHI EA '22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ed. / Simone Barbosa; Cliff Lampe; Caroline Appert; David A. Shamma. New York: ACM, 2022. p. 1-7 26.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Winter, Spencer

AU - Hicks, Jonathan Lloyd

PY - 2022/4/28

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N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

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ER -

Designing and Embedding a Tangible Public Interface in the COVID Era

Abstract

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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