Proxemics Beyond Proximity: Designing for Flexible Social Interaction Through Cross-Device Interaction

2020. Jens Gr\o{}nb\ae{}k, Mille Knudsen, Kenton O'Hara, Peter Krogh, Jo Vermeulen & Marianne Petersen
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Abstract

Cross-device interactions enable ad hoc sharing of content and control in co-located collaboration. Cross-device research often draws from proxemics theory for designing interactions based on detection of spatial relations such as distance and orientation between people and devices. However, detection of human-human or human-device proximity also constrains flexibility in co-located social interaction. We suggest a proxemics-based approach to designing flexible cross-device interactions. From observations in a field study, we articulate how co-located sharing practices are shaped by the interplay between everyday mobile devices and the physical environment. Based on these insights, we present three cross-device prototypes as proofs-of-concept, demonstrating three design sensitivities for considering proxemics beyond proximity; incorporating features in the environment, enabling flexibility in interpersonal distance and orientation, and providing multiple alternative action possibilities. Drawing from characteristics of our prototypes, we discuss concrete proposals for designing cross-device interactions to enable flexible social interaction.

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Citation

Grønbæk, J. E., Knudsen, M. S., O'Hara, K., Krogh, P. G., Vermeulen, J., & Petersen, M. G. (2020). Proxemics beyond proximity: designing for flexible social interaction through cross-device interaction. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–14). New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. URL: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376379, doi:10.1145/3313831.3376379

BibTeX

@inproceedings{10.1145/3313831.3376379,
author = {Gr\o{}nb\ae{}k, Jens Emil and Knudsen, Mille Skovhus and O'Hara, Kenton and Krogh, Peter Gall and Vermeulen, Jo and Petersen, Marianne Graves},
title = {Proxemics Beyond Proximity: Designing for Flexible Social Interaction Through Cross-Device Interaction},
year = {2020},
isbn = {9781450367080},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376379},
doi = {10.1145/3313831.3376379},
abstract = {Cross-device interactions enable ad hoc sharing of content and control in co-located collaboration. Cross-device research often draws from proxemics theory for designing interactions based on detection of spatial relations such as distance and orientation between people and devices. However, detection of human-human or human-device proximity also constrains flexibility in co-located social interaction. We suggest a proxemics-based approach to designing flexible cross-device interactions. From observations in a field study, we articulate how co-located sharing practices are shaped by the interplay between everyday mobile devices and the physical environment. Based on these insights, we present three cross-device prototypes as proofs-of-concept, demonstrating three design sensitivities for considering proxemics beyond proximity; incorporating features in the environment, enabling flexibility in interpersonal distance and orientation, and providing multiple alternative action possibilities. Drawing from characteristics of our prototypes, we discuss concrete proposals for designing cross-device interactions to enable flexible social interaction.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1–14},
numpages = {14},
keywords = {ad hoc collaboration, cross-device interaction, interaction proxemics, proximity sensing, sensing systems},
location = {Honolulu, HI, USA},
series = {CHI '20}
}