Designing for Engaging Communication Between Parents and Young Adult Children Through Shared Music Experiences

TL;DR

This study introduces DJ-Fam, a mobile app that uses shared music listening to enhance communication and strengthen relationships between parents and young adult children living apart, demonstrating positive impacts in a four-week deployment.

Contribution

The paper presents the design and evaluation of DJ-Fam, a novel music-mediated communication tool that fosters parent-child interaction through shared listening experiences.

Findings

Increased communication frequency among participants

Diversified communication channels and topics

Participants found the app satisfactory and engaging

Abstract

This paper aims to foster social interaction between parents and young adult children living apart via music. Our approach transforms their music-listening moment into an opportunity to listen to the other's favorite songs and enrich interaction in their daily lives. To this end, we explore the current practice and needs of parent-child communication and the experience and perception of music-mediated interaction. Based on the findings, we developed DJ-Fam, a mobile application that enables parents and children to listen to their favorite songs and use them as conversation starters to foster parent-child interaction. From our deployment study with seven families over four weeks in South Korea, we show the potential of DJ-Fam to influence parent-child interaction and their mutual understanding and relationship positively. Specifically, DJ-Fam considerably increases the frequency of communication and diversifies the communication channels and topics, all of which are satisfactory to the participants.