Display Placement and Design: Impact on Engagement with Social Object Labels in a Gallery Environment

Considering placement and content design as key factors determining attention and engagement with interactive public displays, this paper reports on an empirical study investigating attention and engagement with social object labels as a particular instance of that display class in a museum context. It describes a field trial in a live gallery environment evaluating a range of display placements and designs. The study suggests that (i) placement has a major impact on attention and engagement; (ii) the attention potential of display placements can be quantified to predict attention and engagement rates; (iii) interaction- and information design only have a minor impact on some engagement metrics. The findings help to better understand how placement and design influence attention and engagement with public displays and underline the need for further research exploring these aspects in other contexts.