Using Co-Design with Streamers and Viewers to Identify Values and Resolve Tensions in the Design of Interpersonal Wearable Telepresence Systems

DOI

We conducted a co-design study with 26 users in dyadic groups who were assigned to the opposing roles of ``Streamers'' and ``Viewers'' to design interactive, wearable telepresence prototypes for interpersonal use. The goal was to elicit values, identify value tensions, and resolve these tensions in the design of a system that allows Streamers to share their live experiences with a remote Viewer. Leveraging the lens of value-sensitive design (VSD), we found that these different stakeholders prioritized different values in design, but possibly due to our prompt to design for someone they cared about/knew, often accounted for one another’s needs in their solutions to arrive at designs that were affordable, unobtrusive, and socially acceptable for the Streamer, while giving the Viewer a sense of autonomy. Our work highlights the strengths of co-design when eliciting important human values in the design of sociotechnical systems for wearable telepresence, reconciling value tensions, and conceptualizing novel hardware- and software-based solutions for enhancing the interpersonal telepresence experience of both viewers and streamers. A key insight from our study is that no single system will meet all users' needs; therefore, we should move towards building customizable toolkits to account for differing values and needs.