Us-Reflection: Designing for Meaningful Social Interactions

DOI

Technology increasingly shapes our social interactions, both online and in person. Strong social connections and face-to-face interactions are vital for wellbeing, especially with close relationships. In this context, technology can play an ambivalent role: whereas it often has a negative impact on the quality of these interactions, it carries potential to enrich conversations and improve social interactions if used in a meaningful way. We design a prototype that implements subtle intervention strategies to foster meaningful technology use, specifically aimed at enhancing close relationships during in-person interactions. We evaluate the prototype within an exploratory, two-week in-the-wild user study with 6 tandems (N=12). Our findings suggest that the strategy of "us-reflection" – a social approach to reflection – contributes to mutual awareness of participants' shared time. Our prototype encouraged more meaningful interactions by proposing conversation topics or suggesting activities, ultimately strengthening close relationships and fostering more intentional, engaging, and rewarding social experiences.