Touch Room answers what is missing from digital communication: the intimacy of human touch.
Telecommunication has traditionally relied on sight and sound. But what if you could touch someone from afar? Touch Room keeps your loved ones within arm's reach. One person invites another to enter a virtual room, and when their fingers touch the same spot, their phones vibrate. Utilizing haptic technology the app creates a sense of intimacy otherwise unavailable in digital communication.
- Live Project Link: http://touchroomapp.com/
- Why this project is worthy of a UX Award:
The pace of new technologies has accelerated in recent years, and it’s easy to get distracted by new forms of media. But as we live with technology more and more, technology will begin to fade into the background, and interaction and emotion will come to the foreground. When someone receives a text message or a Like or a push notification from a friend, their body gives off a little bit of endorphins. The current model of Liking things, sharing, sending notifications, etc., doesn’t actually bring people closer together in a meaningful way. Touch Room moves this conversation forward in a nonverbal experience that engages people on a fundamentally human level. Everyone understands touch and the simple power of touching a loved one. Some stats that speak to this basic need measure its popularity: the app is used across every continent and in 104 different countries. There have been thousands of downloads and approximately 30,000 touch sessions. The farthest distance between two people using Touch Room is 5,650 miles, between Seoul in South Korea and San Francisco in the US. We’ve received a lot of e-mails from people via the support e-mail link. Most just tell us that they enjoy the app and have used it with people they care about.
- Submitted By: Goodby Silverstein & Partners