An Investigation on Acceptance and Rejection of Public Displays in a Knowledge Company

A field study on the dynamics of acceptance and rejection of public displays in a knowledge work environment is presented. This study has been conducted on the premises of a research center that employs more than 400 people. We report the motivations for the deployment of a public display infrastructure by the Communication Office, and present the results of the field study conducted 18 months after the initial installations. The results showed that there were several limitations for addressing the information needs of employees through the public displays. The main reasons being they were not properly situated in the everyday lifecycle of the institute, and the visual layout was somehow confusing and often ineffective. However, one of the main design goals was the address the need to propose a new corporate identity after a recent company restructuring. This was communicated more effectively even if not generally accepted. Starting from these results, we proposed two main design strategies to make the deployment of public display systems more effective in terms of perceived usefulness and acceptance: (1) seamless integration of the public display into the everyday life of the community and (2) active involvement of the members of the community in the creation and diffusion of content.