Keep In Touch: Designing Tactile Communication

Keep In Touch is a design research study which explores how new design methods for haptic devices might expand non-verbal, tactile communication amongst friends and loved ones. While many current forms of digital interaction rely on video calls, messaging, or large-scale social media platforms, this project investigates how vibrotactile feedback within intimate, platonic networks might offer alternative forms of connection and communication.

Iterative prototyping and an exploratory workshop series informed the design and development of “Touchstones”: stone-like, handheld, wireless, and networked devices equipped with vibration motors. Each iteration refined the physical design, haptic interactions, and accompanying graphical user interface (GUI) through which users can create, send, and receive tactile communications. Insights from the workshops informed the final design, shaping how the Touchstones form a bespoke communication system within group social contexts.

Touchstones are designed for group-based haptic communication, building upon commonly seen one-to-one explorations. Keep In Touch draws on and contributes to fields including remote presence, embodied interaction, mediated social touch, wearable technologies, and non-verbal communication devices. The project’s prototypes and workshop findings offer insight into tactile communication and demonstrate how Touchstones can augment social connection and create a meaningful shared language within social groups.

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Olivia Pasian is a graphic and web designer as well as a graduate student in the Digital Futures (MDes) program at OCAD University. She holds a Bachelor of Design from OCAD University, with a major in Graphic Design and a minor in Illustration. Her work spans graphic design, web-based and interactive experiences, and often blends illustration, coding, and design across disciplines. Her research and practice explore how digital environments can be designed to support meaningful communication and social connection.