Levelling, Nudging, and Easing
Robb Mitchell · 2019
Social and collaborative benefits are a major motivator for developing tangible and embodied interaction, but if, how, and why such approaches may successfully facilitate collocated encounters between strangers is not well established. We have been conducting an iterative, and participatory design space review of diverse design examples that may help foster social icebreaking in urban settings. Qualitative data was collected through workshops and group sessions, analysed thematically and compared against insights from social science literature. As a result, clusters of diverse design examples were connected with explanations of specific difficulties with initiating new encounters that they might support. In this paper, we focus on how different aspects of the distances between people may impede new encounters. We contribute three inspirational design patterns that offer strategies to make social interaction more likely through enabling, encouraging or excusing people to move closer together. These articulations of possible approaches for increasing conviviality may broaden the repertoire of developers concerned with social settings and collaboration.