ShareTable: Supporting Communication in Separated Families

Опубликовано 12 августа 2016, 0:32

Have you ever tried to talk to a young child on the phone for more than five minutes? If you have, then you may understand some of the challenges routinely faced by families affected by military deployment, divorce, and frequent work travel. Working closely with separated families, I have come to understand the unique needs of this communication context, which is characterized by asymmetric (and frequently conflicting) motivations, abilities, and goals of the stakeholders. To address these challenges, I designed and built the ShareTable, a communication appliance that combines easy-to-initiate videoconferencing with a shared tabletop workspace that provides context through shared activities. A month-long deployment of the ShareTable in the homes of four Atlanta-area families has demonstrated the potential of this technology for increasing the amount of communication between parents and children, improving the quality of the parent-child relationship, and supporting a remote connection that was described by participants as ΓÇ£almost touchingΓÇ¥ and ΓÇ£a valuable extra dimension.ΓÇ¥ I will also reflect on how the process of developing and evaluating the ShareTable can inform other communication technologies in and out of the home setting.