LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office

Yuanyuan Xu; Lu Liu; Harm van Essen

doi:10.1145/3706599.3719781

LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office

Yuanyuan Xu
, Lu Liu
, Harm van Essen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

50 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

With the tendency of hybrid workplace, more people work from home, offering benefits for both individuals and organizations. However, physical separation from colleagues increases social isolation. Home workers often lack information on their colleagues’ locations, presence, and intentions—key aspects of Workspace Awareness (WA). WA can contribute to collaborative interactions and have the potential to influence social connectedness. Considering home scenarios, lights within smart homes offer potential as carriers of ambient displays. This study proposed LiteCo, a Hybrid Presence System, designed to promote WA among home workers through lighting design. Twelve participants evaluated LiteCo’s impact on WA and social connectedness (SC). Results show that LiteCo can enhance WA by presenting office dynamics to home workers, and lead to higher level of SC. It also helps synchronize work rhythms, fosters emotional connections, and maintains appropriate attention levels while balancing privacy concerns.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI EA '25
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Editors	Naomi Yamashita, Vanessa Evers, Koji Yatani, Xianghua (Sharon) Ding
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	979-8-4007-1395-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3719781
Publication status	Published - 26 Apr 2025
Event	2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2025 - Yokohama, Japan Duration: 26 Apr 2025 → 1 May 2025 https://chi2025.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2025
Abbreviated title	CHI 2025
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	26/04/25 → 1/05/25
Internet address	https://chi2025.acm.org/

Keywords

Ambient display
Computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW)
Hybrid work
Research through Design
Social connectedness (SC)
Workspace awareness (WA)

Access to Document

10.1145/3706599.3719781

pdfFinal published version, 13.1 MBLicence: TAVERNE

Cite this

Xu, Y., Liu, L., & van Essen, H. (2025). LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office. In N. Yamashita, V. Evers, K. Yatani, & X. Ding (Eds.), CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article 381 Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3719781

Xu, Yuanyuan ; Liu, Lu ; van Essen, Harm. / LiteCo : Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office. CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. editor / Naomi Yamashita ; Vanessa Evers ; Koji Yatani ; Xianghua (Sharon) Ding. New York : Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2025.

@inproceedings{aa914c87ed0c4c2084d02f46e662ae65,

title = "LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office",

abstract = "With the tendency of hybrid workplace, more people work from home, offering benefits for both individuals and organizations. However, physical separation from colleagues increases social isolation. Home workers often lack information on their colleagues{\textquoteright} locations, presence, and intentions—key aspects of Workspace Awareness (WA). WA can contribute to collaborative interactions and have the potential to influence social connectedness. Considering home scenarios, lights within smart homes offer potential as carriers of ambient displays. This study proposed LiteCo, a Hybrid Presence System, designed to promote WA among home workers through lighting design. Twelve participants evaluated LiteCo{\textquoteright}s impact on WA and social connectedness (SC). Results show that LiteCo can enhance WA by presenting office dynamics to home workers, and lead to higher level of SC. It also helps synchronize work rhythms, fosters emotional connections, and maintains appropriate attention levels while balancing privacy concerns.",

keywords = "Ambient display, Computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW), Hybrid work, Research through Design, Social connectedness (SC), Workspace awareness (WA)",

author = "Yuanyuan Xu and Lu Liu and \{van Essen\}, Harm",

year = "2025",

month = apr,

day = "26",

doi = "10.1145/3706599.3719781",

language = "English",

editor = "Naomi Yamashita and Vanessa Evers and Koji Yatani and Ding, \{Xianghua (Sharon)\}",

booktitle = "CHI EA '25",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.",

address = "United States",

note = "2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2025, CHI 2025 ; Conference date: 26-04-2025 Through 01-05-2025",

url = "https://chi2025.acm.org/",

}

Xu, Y, Liu, L & van Essen, H 2025, LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office. in N Yamashita, V Evers, K Yatani & X Ding (eds), CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 381, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., New York, 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2025, Yokohama, Japan, 26/04/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3719781

LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office. / Xu, Yuanyuan; Liu, Lu ; van Essen, Harm.
CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ed. / Naomi Yamashita; Vanessa Evers; Koji Yatani; Xianghua (Sharon) Ding. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2025. 381.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - LiteCo

T2 - 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2025

AU - Xu, Yuanyuan

AU - Liu, Lu

AU - van Essen, Harm

PY - 2025/4/26

Y1 - 2025/4/26

N2 - With the tendency of hybrid workplace, more people work from home, offering benefits for both individuals and organizations. However, physical separation from colleagues increases social isolation. Home workers often lack information on their colleagues’ locations, presence, and intentions—key aspects of Workspace Awareness (WA). WA can contribute to collaborative interactions and have the potential to influence social connectedness. Considering home scenarios, lights within smart homes offer potential as carriers of ambient displays. This study proposed LiteCo, a Hybrid Presence System, designed to promote WA among home workers through lighting design. Twelve participants evaluated LiteCo’s impact on WA and social connectedness (SC). Results show that LiteCo can enhance WA by presenting office dynamics to home workers, and lead to higher level of SC. It also helps synchronize work rhythms, fosters emotional connections, and maintains appropriate attention levels while balancing privacy concerns.

AB - With the tendency of hybrid workplace, more people work from home, offering benefits for both individuals and organizations. However, physical separation from colleagues increases social isolation. Home workers often lack information on their colleagues’ locations, presence, and intentions—key aspects of Workspace Awareness (WA). WA can contribute to collaborative interactions and have the potential to influence social connectedness. Considering home scenarios, lights within smart homes offer potential as carriers of ambient displays. This study proposed LiteCo, a Hybrid Presence System, designed to promote WA among home workers through lighting design. Twelve participants evaluated LiteCo’s impact on WA and social connectedness (SC). Results show that LiteCo can enhance WA by presenting office dynamics to home workers, and lead to higher level of SC. It also helps synchronize work rhythms, fosters emotional connections, and maintains appropriate attention levels while balancing privacy concerns.

KW - Ambient display

KW - Computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW)

KW - Hybrid work

KW - Research through Design

KW - Social connectedness (SC)

KW - Workspace awareness (WA)

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105005746546

U2 - 10.1145/3706599.3719781

DO - 10.1145/3706599.3719781

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:105005746546

BT - CHI EA '25

A2 - Yamashita, Naomi

A2 - Evers, Vanessa

A2 - Yatani, Koji

A2 - Ding, Xianghua (Sharon)

PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

CY - New York

Y2 - 26 April 2025 through 1 May 2025

ER -

Xu Y, Liu L , van Essen H. LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office. In Yamashita N, Evers V, Yatani K, Ding X, editors, CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2025. 381 doi: 10.1145/3706599.3719781

LiteCo: Illuminating Workspace Awareness and Social Connectedness with Ambient Display in Home Office

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