Exploring%20Technologies%20of%20Intimacy%20Minimal%20Intimate%20Objects

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Exploring Technologies of IntimacyMinimal
Intimate Objects

• Society for the Social Studies of Science
• Pasadena, CA
• 20 October 2005
• Joseph Jofish Kaye
• Culturally Embedded Computing
• Cornell Information Science
• jofish_at_cornell.edu

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Thanks to

• Phoebe Sengers, Liz Goulding CEmCom
• Collaborators Mariah K. Levitt, Jeff Nevins,
  Jessica Golden Vanessa Schmidt
• Kirsten Boehner Jeff Hancock
• Bill Arms, Richard Calvi, Aakash Jain, Vishal
  Desai, Shantanu Shah, Matt Feusner, Wei Guo,
  William Yip

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Intimate Objects

• Technological devices for couples to communicate
• Long distance relationships lead users of
  communication technologies
• Focus of this talk evaluation

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Minimal Intimate Objects

• How can we build technological objects that will
  allow us to study the communication of intimacy?

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Minimal Intimate Objects

• What is intimacy, anyway?
• How much bandwidth does it take to sucessfully
  transmit intimacy? Can we even measure it that
  way?
• How do we know when weve transmitted it?
• How can we understand when our users think
  theyve transmitted it?
• How can we evaluate a system designed to
  communicate something when we cant even measure
  if its there or not?
• If only it was as easy as this

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How much does Ariel love Eric? Count the hearts!
Disney (1997) The Special Edition Little
Mermaid Coloring Book. Golden Books Publishing.
Answer 19
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Minimal Intimate Objects VIO

• VIO (Virtual Intimate Object)
• Software device represented as a small red circle
  in the taskbar of Windows screen
• When circle is clicked, partners circle glows
  bright red, then fades over time.

• Kaye, Levitt, Nevins, Golden Schmidt.
  Communicating Intimacy One Bit at a Time.
  Proceedings of CHI 2005, ACM Press.

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Methodology Participants

• Participants
• 10 couples in existing long-distance
  relationships (n20)
• 5 couples assigned to VIO (n10)
• 5 couples assigned to MinIO (n10)

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Methodology Procedure

• Procedure
• Initial screening for technology
• Pre-test questionnaire
• Daily Survey for 7 days
• Post-test questionnaire
• Server logs of every use of IO

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Daily Survey Entries

• Daily repeating Likkert scale questions
• How close do you feel to your partner today?
• How satisfied do you feel by your relationship
  today?
• How connected do you feel to your partner today?
• What impact do you think your frequency of use of
  VIO had on your partners day?
• What is your overall attitude towards VIO today?
• What is your overall interest level in VIO today?
• How comfortable did you feel with VIO today?
• No aggregate statistically significant trends

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Designing rich evaluationof minimal communication

• Subjects filled out a daily survey
• Designed
• to be enchanting and compelling to use
• for rich feedback
• to promote reflection by the user on
• the relationship
• the technology
• the study itself

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Logbook Entries Relationship

• Questions about relationship
• The color/song/TV show/season that currently best
  represents my relationship is
• If I were to do a dance about my relationship
  today, it would be a
• Rumba Samba Tango Waltz Swing

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Logbook Entries Relationship

• The color that currently best represents my
  relationship is
• Amber/yellow --gt do I proceed w/ caution or speed
  up to beat the red or slow down anticipating a
  step
• Purple - we have a more matured, aged
  relationship rather than a new, boundless one
  which would best be described by red. Purple is
  the more aged, ripened form of red.
• Yellow! Like a sun, like a summer. I often laugh
  with Sven especially in those days. Using Vio is
  really funny and interesting.

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Logbook Entries The IO

• Questions about the intimate object itself
• I would name my IO my partners IO
• If I could change one thing about my IO it would
  be
• If my IO made a sound it would be
• Draw a picture of your ideal IO
• I generally used my IO when I was
• If I could change one thing about my IO it would
  be

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Logbook Entries The IO

• If I could change one thing about my VIO it would
  be
• the fact that I can only use it when I'm on my
  computer cuz if I'm home and want to use it I
  have to turn it on and if I'm out I have to keep
  track that I want to click it
• The lag time between click and reaction
• Well I can see Vio only on the bar down, so I
  have to see it looking down. It would be nice if
  Vio will be something you can move around your
  desktop and put it where you prefer to be.
• Have the red/pink color take longer to fade.

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Logbook Entries Study itself

• Questions about the study itself
• I think this research is really about
• Which of these is your favorite number?
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• I would name the people conducting this study
• Tell us a better way to do this study
• Who have you told about this study? Why?

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Logbook Entries

• I think this research is really about
• Whether VIO promotes or enhances intimacy for
  long-distance couples
• people in relationships trying to connect
  throughout the day without using or needing
  words.
• It is a new way for communication.
• Creating computer dependency and spreading and
  marketing it to the general public

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Rich Stories from Minimal Data

• Did it make you feel closer to your partner?
• I was surprised to see one morning that my
  partner had actually turned on his computer just
  to push VIO and then turned it off again
• YES - We share this experience together, and we
  use VIO aware that from another part of the world
  someone was thinking to each other! When VIO
  became red I feel very happy, because I knew that
  my boyfriend was clicking on it. So this
  communication was in a instant.

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Cross-referencing ResultsQuantitative
Qualitative

• We can correlate their use of the software with
  answers to questions.
• If my relationship were a season, it would be
• 7/10 VIO subjects pick summer
• 1/10, the most heavy user, picked spring
• 2/10, the couple with the lowest VIO use, pick
  fall and winter

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Observations

• Clicks are situated in a deep understanding of
  the couples shared relationship
• The first click of the morning
• Im awake!
• Call me!
• vs. Clickwars
• No! I love you more!

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Numerical Results

• Participants used it on average a total of 14 to
  168 times a day (average 35, SD 27, max gt 700)
• 75 reported VIO made them feel closer to their
  partner during the study.
• 88 stated it became a regular part of their
  daily routine.
• Many participants found it was an unobtrusive way
  to communicate while at work.

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Rich evaluations for rich situations

• Inspired by cultural probes
• Rich understanding of users experience with the
  device
• Rich opportunities for reflection
• Rich source of input for what to do next, both
  for research and for the software.

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Back to evaluating

• So how we can we evaluate?
• Zen Fairy Tales
• Audit society
• HCI design, build, evaluate
• Iterative design
• Evaluation looks back and looks forward
• Mateas A good evaluation tells me what to do
  next

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• Joseph Jofish Kaye
• Culturally Embedded Computing
• Cornell Information Science
• jofish_at_cornell.edu
• This talk at jofish.com/talks