Designing the spectator experience

  • Authors:

  • Stuart Reeves;Steve Benford;Claire O'Malley;Mike Fraser

  • Affiliations:

  • The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2005

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.01

Visualization

Abstract

Interaction is increasingly a public affair, taking place in our theatres, galleries, museums, exhibitions and on the city streets. This raises a new design challenge for HCI - how should spectators experience a performer's interaction with a computer? We classify public interfaces (including examples from art, performance and exhibition design) according to the extent to which a performer's manipulations of an interface and their resulting effects are hidden, partially revealed, fully revealed or even amplified for spectators. Our taxonomy uncovers four broad design strategies: 'secretive,' where manipulations and effects are largely hidden; 'expressive,' where they tend to be revealed enabling the spectator to fully appreciate the performer's interaction; 'magical,' where effects are revealed but the manipulations that caused them are hidden; and finally 'suspenseful,' where manipulations are apparent but effects are only revealed as the spectator takes their turn.