SlideTalk: Encouraging user engagement with slideshow displays

Despite significant advances in interaction techniques and novel display applications, the majority of digital signage installations display advertisements, notices or other static content in a traditional slideshow format. Such installations offer obvious benefits for the screen owner/maintainer by allowing easy creation of content in traditional office tools, lightweight scheduling, and a predictable viewing model. However, for potential viewers, there is little benefit in terms of ease of navigation, or interactivity, contributing to the well-known problem of display blindness. In this paper, we experiment with two potential smartphone-based approaches to add interactivity to slideshow content for public displays. We trial the approaches in the context of a University signage system and use mixed-methods to gain insight into the possible benefits of each approach.