Intimate Objects : A site for affective evaluation

In this paper, I present Intimate Objects -technological devices for communicating intimacy between couples -as a site for exploring evaluation of affective designs. We built two such systems, a software and a hardware version. Both versions included a logbook for participants to record both quantitative and open-ended reflections on the Intimate Object, on their relationship, and on the study itself. Futhermore, it was possible for us to track usage of both systems, to gain precise quantitative data on the extent to which the devices were used. I discuss the results we derived from this mass of data, and problems we encountered in attempting to measure intimacy as an aspect of affective computing. In particular, I discuss the "nineteen hearts" problem of quantifying the perhaps unquantifiable, and discuss advantages and shortcomings of our approaches to the problem.