Qualitative study for designing peripheral communication between hospitalized children and their family members

Abstract

This paper describes an effort to develop a new communication supporting environment which engenders a greater sense of social proximity among geographically distributed families, particularly between hospitalized children and their families. We conducted a qualitative study including two in-depth field interviews with in-hospital school teachers and the mother of a hospitalized child. The results from qualitative analysis provided us with insight into the organization of the interactions between the hospitalized child and the family. On the basis of the results, we established a set of design principles and developed four different types of technology prototypes for peripheral communication. The design principles played a splicing role in binding the heterogeneous processes of qualitative research and the development of prototypes. Future works involve the enhancement of design principles and prototypes, and methodological improvements. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.