Evaluating Ambient Displays in the Wild: Highlighting Social Aspects of Use in Public Settings

A prominent issue for evaluating ambient displays has been the conflict between the relative intrusiveness of evaluation methods and the intention to keep the display at the periphery of the user’s attention. There is a general lack of research discussing the difficulties of evaluating ambient displays in the wild, and in particular social aspects of use has received little attention. This paper presents a case study of an ambient light display designed for a public setting. Based on results from a non-intrusive in situ evaluation, we argue that viewing ambient displays as features of a broader social setting may aid our understanding of issues regarding the evaluation of ambient displays in the wild.