Barriers for Bridging Interpersonal Gaps: Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction

Robb Mitchell; Thomas Olsson

doi:10.1145/3083671.3083697

Barriers for Bridging Interpersonal Gaps: Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction

Robb Mitchell
, Thomas Olsson

Tampere University of Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

661 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Positive face-to-face social encounters between strangers
can strengthen the sense of community in modern urban
environments. However, it is not always easy to initiate
friendly encounters due to various inhibiting social norms.
We present three inspirational design patterns for reducing
inhibitions to interact with unfamiliar others. These
abstractions are based on a broad design space review of
concepts, encompassing examples across a range of scales,
fields, media and forms. Each inspirational pattern is
formulated as a response to a different challenge to
initiating social interaction but all share an underlying
similarity in offering varieties of barriers and filters that
paradoxically also separate people. The patterns are “Closer
Through Not Seeing”; “Closer Through Not Touching”;
and “Minimize Encounter Duration”. We believe these
patterns can support designers, in understanding,
articulating, and generating approaches to creating
embodied interventions and systems that enable
unacquainted people to interact.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	21. Jun 2017
Pages	2-11
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4503-4854-6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450348546
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3083671.3083697
Publication status	Published - 21. Jun 2017
Event	8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies - Troyes, France Duration: 26. Jun 2017 → 30. Jun 2017 Conference number: 8

Conference

Conference	8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies
Number	8
Country/Territory	France
City	Troyes
Period	26/06/2017 → 30/06/2017

Keywords

Collocated interaction
Face-to-face interaction
Social interaction design, pattern languages, embodied interaction

Documents & Links

10.1145/3083671.3083697

Barriers For Bridging Interpersonal Gaps- Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction - Mitchell & Olsson - C&T 2017Accepted manuscript, 6.27 MBLicence: Unspecified

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2 Guest lectures, external teaching and course activities at other universities

Addressing Loneliness With Inspirational Design Patterns (guest lecture, University of Twente)
Mitchell, R. (Guest lecturer)
2025
Activity: Talks and presentations › Guest lectures, external teaching and course activities at other universities
Designing for New Social Connections (invited talk at METU, Ankara, Turkey)
Mitchell, R. (Guest lecturer)
2023
Activity: Talks and presentations › Guest lectures, external teaching and course activities at other universities

Cite this

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title = "Barriers for Bridging Interpersonal Gaps: Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction",

abstract = "Positive face-to-face social encounters between strangers can strengthen the sense of community in modern urban environments. However, it is not always easy to initiate friendly encounters due to various inhibiting social norms. We present three inspirational design patterns for reducing inhibitions to interact with unfamiliar others. These abstractions are based on a broad design space review of concepts, encompassing examples across a range of scales, fields, media and forms. Each inspirational pattern is formulated as a response to a different challenge to initiating social interaction but all share an underlying similarity in offering varieties of barriers and filters that paradoxically also separate people. The patterns are {\textquotedblleft}Closer Through Not Seeing{\textquotedblright}; {\textquotedblleft}Closer Through Not Touching{\textquotedblright}; and {\textquotedblleft}Minimize Encounter Duration{\textquotedblright}. We believe these patterns can support designers, in understanding, articulating, and generating approaches to creating embodied interventions and systems that enable unacquainted people to interact.",

keywords = "Collocated interaction, Face-to-face interaction, Social interaction design, pattern languages, embodied interaction",

author = "Robb Mitchell and Thomas Olsson",

year = "2017",

month = jun,

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doi = "10.1145/3083671.3083697",

language = "English",

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pages = "2--11",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

note = "8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, CT ; Conference date: 26-06-2017 Through 30-06-2017",

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Mitchell, R & Olsson, T 2017, Barriers for Bridging Interpersonal Gaps: Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction. in Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 2-11, 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, Troyes, France, 26/06/2017. https://doi.org/10.1145/3083671.3083697

Barriers for Bridging Interpersonal Gaps: Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction. / Mitchell, Robb; Olsson, Thomas.
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies. Association for Computing Machinery, 2017. p. 2-11.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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AB - Positive face-to-face social encounters between strangers can strengthen the sense of community in modern urban environments. However, it is not always easy to initiate friendly encounters due to various inhibiting social norms. We present three inspirational design patterns for reducing inhibitions to interact with unfamiliar others. These abstractions are based on a broad design space review of concepts, encompassing examples across a range of scales, fields, media and forms. Each inspirational pattern is formulated as a response to a different challenge to initiating social interaction but all share an underlying similarity in offering varieties of barriers and filters that paradoxically also separate people. The patterns are “Closer Through Not Seeing”; “Closer Through Not Touching”; and “Minimize Encounter Duration”. We believe these patterns can support designers, in understanding, articulating, and generating approaches to creating embodied interventions and systems that enable unacquainted people to interact.

KW - Collocated interaction

KW - Face-to-face interaction

KW - Social interaction design, pattern languages, embodied interaction

U2 - 10.1145/3083671.3083697

DO - 10.1145/3083671.3083697

M3 - Article in proceedings

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BT - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 26 June 2017 through 30 June 2017

ER -

Barriers for Bridging Interpersonal Gaps: Three Inspirational Design Patterns for Increasing Collocated Social Interaction

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Documents & Links

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Related activities

Addressing Loneliness With Inspirational Design Patterns (guest lecture, University of Twente)

Designing for New Social Connections (invited talk at METU, Ankara, Turkey)

Cite this