For our cse510 project, we chose to update the Sieg Community Display, in the second floor foyer. We felt the old display tried to cram too much information onto one page, making things small an unreadable. And if the information you wanted wasnt displayed, there was nothing you could do about it. There was also no way to tell if anyone was using it.

We thought that allowing user interaction would remedy all these problems. We decided that using a laser pointer directly on the projected display would be a convient way to interact--mouse motion and pointing is straightforward, and we decided that releasing the laser (stop shining it) would map well to a mouse click. Since we were designing the display interface, we made it so that only mouse motion and clicking were necessary to navigate. Since users could now easily bring up content, instead of having to wait for it, we spread content over many different panes and made everything larger so it could be read more easily. If no one is interacting with the display, it cycles through different panes. We also avoid wasting space by skipping pages without content--for instance, if there is nothing on the calendar, it will not be shown as the panes are cycled through. Also, we are now able to get an idea of whether or not people use the display, and how popular different content is, by recording which tabs are clicked on. Content can also be deeper than before. For example, if a user wants to read more than just a summary of a top news story, they can click on a story for the full text. Additionally, if a bus time, calendar event, etc, does not fit on the screen, scrollbars can be used to locate the information. And for the adventurous, there's a Missile Command game in there too.

Since interaction allows input, we also made a message board that could be posted to using the a quikwriting technique, because text input could be done with only laser motion (not requiring clicks). This allows community members to post messages to the community. Since this input may not be the most convienent, we also made a webpage that allows users to post messages to the board. In addition to this, we also allow community members to post pictures to be displayed on the 'pictures' pane of the display. In order to have people accountable for the messages and pictures they post through the web, department login is required.

A short paper on this project is here, in pdf. The webpage that allows posting messages and pictures is located at http://abstract.cs.washington.edu/~harlan/community .

And here is a sample of what the new display looks like:

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