A persuasive interactive mannequin for shop windows

Abstract

In this paper, we present an interactive mannequin for persuading bypassing customers to extend the perceived time they stay in front of a shop window. The mannequin was designed and prototyped to be seamlessly integrated into a shop window, constituting an ambient persuasion interface. The design concept of our virtual mannequin is based on actual real world mannequins. Based on implicit input from the customers, the mannequin reacts on their presence by looking into their direction. We implemented a prototype of the persuasive interactive mannequin (PIM) as a 3D model, visualized on a large LCD screen and deployed it in a retail store within a shopping mall. The results from a three days field study of this deployment are presented and discussed. The study results give insights about the persuasive effect of the mannequin as well as implications for the user centered design of interactive agents in the context of shopping.