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Designing to distract: Can interactive technologies reduce visitor anxiety in a children's hospital setting?

Lim, B; Rogers, Y; Sebire, N; (2019) Designing to distract: Can interactive technologies reduce visitor anxiety in a children's hospital setting? ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) , 26 (2) , Article 9. 10.1145/3301427. Green open access

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Abstract

Many public buildings are entered through reception areas, intended for visitors to sit and wait in to be met. A concern is how to make visitors feel welcome while in transit. Hospitals, medical centres and other healthcare organisations are a special case where the challenge is to enable patients and families feel less anxious when waiting. One approach has been to design for distraction - where displays, surfaces, and interactive installations are created to draw visitor's attention away from their immediate thoughts. However, little is known as to how people respond to such interventions. We present the findings of an ethnographic study that examined the social and psychological effects of using distraction as a design principle in a children's hospital reception area. We discuss the challenges of designing to distract, in relation to how it can be combined with other architectural and HCI ones, when developing new human-building interfaces.

Type: Article
Title: Designing to distract: Can interactive technologies reduce visitor anxiety in a children's hospital setting?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1145/3301427
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1145/3301427
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Human-centered computing; Field Studies; children’s hospital, distraction principle; Interactive floor displays; public displays; reception area
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10075634
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