Exploring Needs and Design Opportunities for Proactive Information Support in In-Person Small-Group Conversations

TL;DR

This paper explores how Mixed Reality can be used to provide proactive information support in in-person small-group conversations, aiming to enhance interaction and engagement.

Contribution

It presents a participatory design and qualitative study identifying key design opportunities for proactive information support in small-group settings.

Findings

Identified design opportunities to maximize benefits of proactive support

Explored effective ways to design supporting information

Provided insights for future AI agents in conversation support

Abstract

In-person small-group conversations play a crucial role in everyday life; however, facilitating effective group interaction can be challenging, as the real-time nature demands full attention, offers no opportunity for revision, and requires interpreting non-verbal cues. Using Mixed Reality to provide proactive information support shows promise in helping individuals engage in and contribute to group conversations. We present a preliminary participatory design and qualitative study (N = 10) using focus groups and two technology probes to explore the opportunities of designing proactive information support in in-person small-group conversations. We reveal key design opportunities concerning how to maximize the benefits of proactive information support and how to effectively design such supporting information. Our study is crucial for paving the way toward designing future proactive AI agents to enable the paradigm of augmented in-person small-group conversation experience.