Multipurpose Public Displays: Can Automated Grouping of Applications and Services Enhance User Experience?

Abstract

Transitioning from bespoke single-purpose displays to multipurpose public interactive displays entails a number of challenges. One challenge is the development of usable mechanisms that allow users to explore the functionality and services on such displays. This article presents a field trial that employs AutoCardSorter, a tool that uses semantic similarity and clustering algorithms, to automatically group the available applications of a public interactive display into categories based on the developer-provided descriptions of each application. The results demonstrate that the grouping generated by AutoCardSorter improved both performance and self-reported usability measures compared to prac..