Abstract: Cheap and easy-to-deploy consumer hardware, such as the Microsoft Kinect, touch screens, and smartphones drive an increasing proliferation of public space with interactive applications. Such applications include artistic, playful, and informative content on public displays. Though such applications are in general positively perceived by users, their benefit is in many cases not clear. In this paper we argue that while most current (advertising) content on public displays stimulating user action (e.g., making a purchase), interactive applications are also suitable to support cognition. In our work, we focus on awareness as one particular form of cognition and assess it by measuring recall and recognition. This is not only interesting for advertising but for any type of applications that requires the user to remember information. We contribute a design space and map out directions for future research. You can find the paper via the download button below.