Observation: Wifi + Adtech Hubs

I walk past this each time I would take the train – a larger-than-life, wifi and battery-charging, digital outdoor signage device sprawling the streets of the 5 boroughs called LinkNYC.

I heard about it exactly a year ago from a hackathon event that I’d attended. I wish I had tackled it as a redesign challenge and asked the public what they thought of it then, but for this observation task, I want to really make it a mission to document how the public actually interacts with it – ala “a day in the life”.

IMHO

I am not sure why I wasn’t very psyched about a blown-up version of a mobile phone – even with the convenience it offers to answer to every passers-by’s emergency needs – a short-lived cellphone battery, food delivery, transportation and tourism. I honestly forget this convenience exists, as a person who always finds herself needing transit updates and with a dead phone by evening, I normally would defer to status quo – wait for the train and until I get home to recharge.

I do get the part about providing a better way to display ads. What was odd is why the additional features exist. PROS: free wifi hotspot and cheaper ad space. CONS: a.) What have we learned from why phone booths are now obsolete? technically it’s a digitized phone booth b.) cringeworthy idea of touching publicly utilized things. (a documentary on movie theaters showing e-coli on the butter button scarred me for life.)

ART IN PUBLIC SPACES

I guess LinkNYC is the answer to a business need and a scalable solution to adtech. That there’s a missed opportunity to design for urban spaces is up for debate. How might we design a device for public spaces that can add curiosity or delight potential users with art, commentary  or a room for more exploration to output an inspiring solution?

NUI vs GUI

I’d also emphasize how this could make a good argument for Natural User Interface (NUI’s) slowly disrupting the artificialness of Graphical User Interface (GUI) gestures and solutions that we assume will efficiently and cost-effectively serve us better. Bill Buxton of Microsoft, who is a staunch proponent of NUI (See video) once said this:

“Voice, gesture, touch does not necessarily Natural User Interface make.”
—Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft

Granted that I may be overthinking such a utility-based device. However the real question is, how much more can a wifi hub innovate and what opportunity and/or prevalent need is it serving? how can it invite more interaction if repurposed as an artistic structure? is there opportunity to make an impact beyond wifi?

I took a 30-second video observing how people take no notice of the wifi hub and still planning on shooting more in the weekend when it gets busier!