PosterBoard
Group Members
- Manasi Vartak <mvartak@mit.edu>
- Tristan Naumann <tjn@mit.edu>
- Chidube Ezeozue <cezeozue@mit.edu>
Problem Statement
Event organizers want to effectively publicize their events with the least amount of effort. Traditionally, this involves putting up posters all over campus in hope of selecting locations along the daily path of their target audience. Although this approach has been tested by time, its efficacy is debatable. In a user study, we waited by a noticeboard for about an hour and only 4 of approximately 30 people passing the board actually glanced at it. Even worse, only 1 stopped (for about 10 seconds) for further inspection. In addition to a low number of impressions, dissemination of event information through posters makes it difficult for organizers to estimate attendance.
Likewise, event-goers (in this case, students) often wish they were alerted to events of interest. The ubiquity of the web and mobile phones makes them an obvious channel for advertising events (eg. events.mit.edu). However, students are unlikely to visit event websites for the primary reason of checking out the posters there, particularly when doing so requires sifting through a large number of events which are not relevant to their interests. Other channels (e.g. email) serve to draw attention to events, but often simply replicate a text-only version of the advertisement (with an occasionally attached flyer) and are easily dismissed by users who are attracted to posters by their visual design.