人與人之間具有強烈的溝通需求。人的溝通需求可分為兩種層面,一是資訊傳達,講求的是資訊內容的交換;一是情感連結,講求的是人際情感的互動。為了滿足溝通過程中對情感連結的需求,相關研究將焦點放在溝通介面設計如何強調引發人際互動,並喚起使用者連結感為重要的實作目標。在過去以連結感導向的溝通介面實作中,大多透過視覺、聽覺做為資訊訊息的顯示,但這些方式所能表現的情感訊息易受限制,也容易產生對訊息的不了解或誤解。 因此,本研究針對溝通過程中對連結感的需求而設計,並提出以音樂做為使用者情緒狀態的呈現,設計實作一連結感導向的溝通介面原型,取名為MoodCake。期能發揮音樂高度感染力、且可呈現豐富涵義的特性,做為喚起使用者連結感的觸發物。本研究以Logbook Probe做為驗證設計概念的評估方式,依使用者的親密關係分為三種組別,包括家人、情侶與朋友組進行為期五天的使用者評估,並根據使用者的操作紀錄與日誌資料進行分析。 根據資料分析結果證明,以音樂做為使用者情緒狀態呈現的設計概念,確實可讓使用者感受到互動雙方的情緒狀態、增加互動頻率並且成功的引發連結感。使用者皆認為透過音樂做為溝通媒介可讓其感受到互動雙方的存在,音樂的抽象表現力也讓互動的雙方在溝通時更具情境且感同身受。本研究結果可供未來介面設計時,在滿足使用者情感溝通層面需求的參考,並可試圖結合現有溝通媒體,讓使用者溝通過程更豐富完整。
There is a strong need for communication to people, and such a need can be categorized into two aspects: 1) information communication, which lights upon the exchange of information content; 2) emotional connection, which underscores the interaction of interpersonal emotions. In order to satisfy the need for emotional connection during communication, the goal of pertaining studies focused on finding out the way to highlight the interpersonal interactions and arouse users’ connectedness in communication. In past connectedness-oriented interface, most messages displayed through visual and audio media, which could only express limited emotions and were easy to cause ambiguity or misunderstanding to messages. In this thesis, a connectedness-oriented communication interface, named as MoodCake, was proposed. The interface took into the considerations for connectedness in communication and adopted music as the way to present users’ mental states. With MoodCake, it was expected that connectedness could be triggered by music, which is highly influential and could express a variety of meanings. The study adopted Logbook Probe as the method for evaluating the design. The users were categorized into three groups (family members, lovers, and friends) by the intimacy level, they undertook five-day evaluation by the daily logbook, their operation records and log data were applied for further analysis. The results revealed that taking music as the way to express users’ mental states could really help users to perceive each other’s mentality, to raise interaction frequency, and to feel connectedness. In the points of users, adopting music as the communication medium could help them be aware of each other’s existence during interaction. Also, the abstract expression of music made the communication more contextualized and identified. For future interface design, the research results can be a reference for attaining the users’ need in emotional communication. Besides, its combination with current communication media will offer users a richer and more complete communication process.