Miles apart but close at heart?

Abstract

With more people living physically separated from beloved ones, technologies which support relatedness over distance can play an important role for wellbeing. For this purpose, these so-called relatedness technologies use different strategies such as awareness of the other’s activities, simulating physical proximity, or joint action. It appears that only few research concepts turn into commercial concepts or are actually adopted in everyday life. Also, published concepts often show a lack of theoretical foundations and systematic exploration of relevant factors for acceptance and user experience. The present research aims to provide a better theoretical basis for the research and development of relatedness technologies by combining theory from psychology and HCI with empirical insights from four focus groups (n = 21). As a result, we present a UX factors-checklist consisting of motivators, hygiene factors, and meta topics that can be used when designing and evaluating relatedness technologies in order to ensure actual use and a positive user experience and highlight next research steps.