Research Design for Evaluating How to Engage Students with Urban Public Screens in Students´ Neighbourhoods

Public screens are spreading throughout urban residential environments - in busses, trains, shopping centers, or at bus stops. Currently they are mostly used for advertising purposes, however, within the scope of this publication we focus on a new non apparent application area: the application of public screens in student villages. However, with new emerging innovative technologies and the increasing demand of students to use the latest technologies, there is a need and desire to bridge residents and businesses in the local vicinity. In addition, social networks shall help to foster a deeper integration of the community and its services. We present a study of the usage of public screen environments in the student vicinity of Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, Australia and Hervanta, Tampere, Finland. The study had three goals: (1) interviews with business owners to evaluate their needs for content and services, (2) student questioner to gain insights into consumer desires and expectations, (3) development of a roadmap and service concepts for public screens in student vicinities.