Feeling Connected: Exploring Alternative Ways for Building and Sustaining Connections

The pandemic has disrupted family practices for millions of people, causing them to navigate separated relationships unexpectedly. For long-distance families with limited opportunities for face-to-face interaction, technology-assisted means of communication become a vital medium to help shape the family identity and maintain bonds. Mainstream communication technologies enable us to hear, text, see families and friends, and use pictures and icons to express how we feel. However, physical and emotional dimensions exist only when we're close to loved ones, such as through physical presence, sharing activities, and touch.In this thesis, I explore ways of leveraging design to help international students enhance emotional connections with family members across time and space, and create a sense of virtual co-presence.