Sharing Domestic Life through Long-Term Video Connections
Date
2015-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ACM
Abstract
Video chat systems such as Skype, Google+ Hangouts, and FaceTime have been widely adopted by family members and friends to connect with one another over distance. We have conducted a corpus of studies that explore how various demographics make use of such video chat systems where this usage moves beyond the paradigm of conversational support to one in which aspects of everyday life are shared over long periods of time, sometimes in an almost passive manner. We describe and reflect on studies of long-distance couples, teenagers, and major life events, along with design research focused on new video communication systems--the Family Window, Family Portals, and Perch--that explicitly support "'lways-on video' for awareness and communication. Overall, our findings show that people highly value long-term video connections and have appropriated them in a number of different ways. Designers of future video communication systems need to consider: ways of supporting the sharing of everyday life, rather than just conversation; providing different design solutions for different locations and situations; providing appropriate audio control and feedback; and, supporting expressions of intimacy over distance.