Building Social Presence for Transnational Families Through Mixed Reality Shared Experiences

Sparked by the frustrations experienced in transnational family communication and inspired by an interest in exploring the potentials of a mixed reality (MR) future landscape, this study investigates the primary research question: how can we use mixed reality to build social presence for transnational family communication? This study reviews literature and contextual works from relevant fields, including presence and social presence, mixed reality, transnational relationships (inter-family and human-space relationships), and technology for social presence for transnational families. Utilizing the Research through Design methodology for iterative prototyping and paired user testing methods, this study explores the use of social MR platforms for transnational family communication. It describes four MR prototypes, paired user testing, and user responses from a live exhibition. This study contributes to theory at the overlapping fields of social presence, mixed reality research, transnational family relationship, and human-space relationship. The mixed reality prototypes, design frameworks, and evaluation criteria for designing mixed reality spaces to build social presence for transnational families also provide significance to design practice. Potential audiences are researchers in fields including mixed reality, communications, diaspora, and transnational studies as well as members of transnational families that may benefit from the research insights presented in this paper.