Negotiating presence-in-absence: contact, content and context

On the basis of a longitudinal field study of domestic communication, we report some essential constituents of the user experience of awareness of others who are distant in space or time, i.e. presence-in-absence. We discuss presence-in-absence in terms of its social (Contact) and informational (Content) facets, and the circumstances of the experience (Context). The field evaluation of a prototype, ‘The Cube’, designed to support presence-in-absence, threw up issues in the interrelationships between contact, content and context; issues that the designers of similar social artifacts will need to address. Author Keywords Presence-in-absence, asynchronous, intimacy ACM Classification Keywords H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces — Asynchronous interaction.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Steve Howard, Jesper Kjeldskov, Mikael B. Skov, Kasper Garnæs, Olga Grünberger
• Keywords: ACM Classification Keywords, CHI 2006, Human Computer Interaction, Longitudinal Field Study, Similar Social Artifacts