Bridging Gaps: Affective Communication in Long Distance Relationships Shruti Bhandari Indiana University School of Informatics 901 E. 10th Street Bloomington, IN 47408, USA Shaowen Bardzell Indiana University School of Informatics 901 E. 10th Street Bloomington, IN 47408, USA CHI 2008 Proceedings · Works In Progress

Outline Introduction User Research Initial Findings Design Concepts Future Work

Introduction Communication is used by non- collocated couples to exchange factual information as well as to express their emotions to each other.

User Research eight people two were married two were international students Three of the participants are presently collocated though they had lived away from their partners in the past. relationship period:1 to 9 years two female & six male participants Subjects:heterosexual relationship

Initial Findings Spent a good part of day communicating or special time cell phone Instant Messaging(IM) Surprise Messages

Design Concepts 1) MatchUs Board: 2) Together Aquarium: 3) CanCan: 4) Audible Gifts:

Diamond Touch

MatchUs Board

Together Aquarium

CanCan

Audible Gifts

Future Work Creating shared experiences and promoting situational awareness Extensive usability evaluation of our design concepts