Exploring Social Awareness: A Design Case Study in Minimal Communication

Computer-mediated communication technology is ubiquitous in today's society. However, the design of these technologies often takes a screen-based approach and requires users to adopt new usage conventions. While these methods have been widely successful in helping individuals communicate, we take a step back in this paper and explore the design implications of a simpler tangible system for keeping in touch. This system consists of a pair of artificial electronic flowers, which connect and transmit information to each other. Our contribution is not in the actual implementation, but rather in the design implications that follow. In our modest evaluation we found participants using our system in informal, relaxed and sometimes novel ways.