Abstract

In recent decades, families in the Western world have become more geographically distributed, making it more difficult for family members to achieve and maintain a feeling of connectedness. Different time zones and contexts and a limited awareness of the other family members’ availability and mood are some of many factors that make “being together” more challenging when physically apart. Modern communication technologies, such as phones, Instant Messenger (IM) clients, and text messaging, improve communication, but seldom achieve the same level of connectedness and awareness that face-to-face communication does. In addition, when it comes to young children, these communication technologies may not even be an option. As a result, many families simply accept the fact that being apart leads to fragmented, or even non-existent, interaction.

For this thesis, I propose to design and evaluate a system that improves the experience of remote interaction and awareness between children and their parents. The main goal of the project is to develop a system that makes geographically distributed families feel more attached and connected than is possible with existing technology. Although I aim to enhance the experience for both parties, the child and the parent, the system will first and foremost be designed with young children’s perception of the world in mind.

The thesis project will consist of two main parts. I will start by exploring the realm of family telepresence by interviewing a number of families that consist of both young children and frequently traveling parents. The exact layout of the system will then be designed on the basis of the initial results. The main questions are:

(1) What content and information about the remote location is useful to children?,

(2) How should that information be presented?,

and, last but not least,

(3) How should the system be designed in order to encourage bi-directional communication and continuity?

A final user-study will be conducted at the end of the project.