An exploratory study of how to design interventions to support informal communication in remote work

Abstract

Remote work has become widely accepted after COVID-19 but comes with many complaints. This paper considers the lack of informal communication among colleagues in remote and hybrid settings. Former studies have acknowledged the value of informal communication in daily work, so we intend to improve the well-being of employees by supporting and stimulating it in remote settings. This exploratory study aimed to understand the situation from a design perspective, and we adopted the research-through-design approach and created designs derived from the design-for-awareness strategy. The study was conducted using online interviews and comprised two sessions: sensitization to immerse participants in the context and exploration for in-depth feedback on new design concepts. Five themes result from the open coding analysis of the interview data. The results provide insights into next steps of design implications for special aspects of remote work, challenges in information sharing, and the role of social factors.