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Matrix

There are many other projects exploring similar themes and I want to contribute something new to this body of work. To that end I have created a model to better understand these projects by mapping them on a 2x2 matrix with the axes representing explicitness and synchronicity.

Matrix of other projects, plotted according to explicitness and synchronicity

You can see that there are fewer projects on the right hand side, representing asynchronous communication, and in particular the lower quadrant representing implicit interaction. But why?

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Explanation of placement

Projects dealing with emotional communication tend to define themselves in terms of what they are not, as well as what they are. Because of that I expected to see the largest grouping clustered inversely to existing options, and that holds true.

The lack of projects employing asynchronous communication may stem from the infrastructure of always-on ubiquitous networks. This medium by default allows for constant and synchronous connections and that inherent quality may have influenced the researchers, technologists, and designers in that direction.

The reason for a lack of projects that use implicit interaction in conjunction with asynchronous communication is somewhat less obvious. I hypothesize that implicit input is usually associated with synchronicity, as with surveillance systems.

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Problems with synchronous communication

There are multiple problems synchronous nature of the projects on the left side. They require that the people using them:

are available for explicit communication at the same time (explicit/synchronous) or
are in the same place/context at a given time (implicit/synchronous).

This is problematic for two reasons:

When people are separated by not only space but also time (in a different time zone) their schedules may be significantly out of synch with each other. The overlap in their availability for synchronous communication might be very small.
If two people are not in the proper place/context when a communication is sent (either explicitly or implicitly) then there will be no positive evidence returned to establish grounding and understanding. Person A might send a message to B but B might not be around to receive it and A won't know if it was received or not. This problem could diminish the medium's effectiveness.

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Design implications

In my project I will explore design concepts that would fall in the lower to middle section of the right side of the matrix: asynchronous communication and at least partially implicit input. I don’t plan on imposing this as a strict constraint, but will use it as a flexible starting point, able to be influence by user research and feedback.

I hope to have some research participants that are separated by not only space but time, and regardless will be representing that notion in a persona as part of my design process.

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