Mailing Archived Emails as Postcards: Probing the Value of Virtual
Collections
Physical and Digital Collections
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Gerritsen, David B.
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Tasse, Dan
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Olsen, Jennifer K.
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Vlahovic, Tatiana A.
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Gulotta, Rebecca
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Odom, William
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Wiese, Jason
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Zimmerman, John
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.1187-1199
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: People accumulate huge assortments of virtual possessions, but it is not yet
clear how systems and system designers can help people make meaning from these
large archives. Early research in HCI has suggested that people generally
appear to value their virtual things less than their material things, but
theory on material possessions does not entirely explain this difference. To
investigate if changes to the form and behavior of virtual things may surface
valued elements of a virtual archive, we designed a technology probe that
selected snippets from old emails and mailed them as physical postcards to
participating households. The probe uncovered features of emails that trigger
meaningful reflection, and how contextual information can help people engage in
reminiscence. Our study revealed insights about how materializing virtual
possessions influences factors shaping how people draw on, understand, and
value those possessions. We conclude with implication and strategies for aimed
at supporting people in having more meaningful interactions and experiences
with their virtual possessions.
Support matching and satisfaction in an online breast cancer support
community
Personal health and wellbeing
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Vlahovic, Tatiana A.
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Wang, Yi-Chia
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Kraut, Robert E.
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Levine, John M.
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.1625-1634
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Research suggests that online health support benefits chronically ill users.
Their satisfaction might be an indicator that they perceive group interactions
as beneficial and a precursor to group commitment. We examined whether
receiving emotional and informational support is satisfying in its own right,
or whether satisfaction depends on matches between what users sought and what
they received. Two studies collected judgments in a breast cancer support
community of support users sought, support they received, and their expressed
satisfaction. While receiving emotional or informational support in general
positively predicted satisfaction, users expressed less satisfaction when they
sought informational support but received emotional support. There was also a
tendency for users to express more satisfaction when they sought and received
informational support. On the other hand, users were equally satisfied with
emotional and informational support after seeking emotional support.
Implications for membership commitment and interventions in online support
groups are discussed.
