Improving Social Interactions: Developing Products to Promote Human Interactivity

Abstract

The form of social interaction has been undergoing significant changes since the information era began in the 1990s. People born in this era and who have been exposed to the Internet, social networks, and mobile systems from their earliest youth are considered Digital Natives. Studies show that they spend more and more time on online socializing and sometimes neglect their relations in real life. The Interactive Product Design (IPD) method is proposed in this paper to help designers develop interactive products which promote human-human interactions in social contexts. The IPD cards and a toolkit are created to conduct the IPD method effectively. The usage of the IPD method and the toolkit is shown by the example design implementation.