LUNOST: Connected Tangible Messengers for Enhancing Off-Site ParentTeenager Relationships

Abstract

In China, off-site family relationships between college students and their parents are often problematic, which may negatively influence the personal development of teenagers. Persuading college students to build healthy and active communications with their parents can be a valuable subject. This paper presents an exploratory design study, investigating a tangible interactive product to help parents and children easily build shared communication experiences remotely. Firstly, we conducted an auto-ethnographical study to explore the design opportunities for improving off-site parent-teenager relationship. In return, we design LUNOST, a pair of metaphorical devices that enables emoji exchange, voice messaging and weather sharing between teenagers and parents over a distance through several tangible interactions, without using any digital tools. Based on the prototypes of LUNOST, we carried out a preliminary user test with 14 college students and 10 parents of them to examine the feasibility user experience of our design concept. Our quantitative findings suggested that LUNOST was experienced significantly useful, in terms of its usability (p=0.003), aesthetics (p=0.001), and perceived motivations (p=0.002). Qualitative results indicated that our design could be useful to remind youngsters to keep in touch with their parents and enable parents to subtly learn the status of their children. Based on our project, we discuss the future developments of relevant technologies for improved off-site parent-teenager relationships.