Conference Paper
HiveToHive: Creating Connectedness Over a Distance
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Text/Conference Paper
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Date
2021
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Publisher
European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies (EUSSET)
Abstract
With social distancing becoming the norm in society as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for connectedness is more important than ever. While current communication technologies such as the smartphone and email connect us with others, they don’t necessarily create a feeling of connectedness. To explore alternative ways to promote such feelings, we developed ‘HiveToHive’, a wall-mountable interactive device intended to increase connectedness to distant loved ones using short text messages. HiveToHive consists of individual, connectable, hexagon-shaped touchscreen devices called Hives. Each Hive represents a one-to-one connection between the user and a loved one. During the user evaluation, we found that HiveToHive increased participants’ feelings of connectedness with others.