The “Kaeru-Chan” Webapp is a playful social technology intended to connect people with physical community spaces (specifically akiya, or vacant houses in Japan) through the stewardship of a “frog” social object. We will scatter 100 NFC-chipped, 3D printed frogs across Japan in an open world quest to strangers, enlisting their help to return them to the Akiya Collective headquarters, the Komoro Makerspace. Participants become temporary stewards of these frogs, either bringing them all the way back to the makerspace, or a stop closer along the way. The overarching goal is to explore how such an interactive location-based game can influence human behavior and feelings around stewardship— and can these feelings of stewardship transfer to the places and people. In other words, can a traveling virtual pet frog deepen people’s attachment to these revitalized homes and encourage social connections?
To address this question, we need a robust experiment design grounded in social psychology and HCI research. This frog webapp is an intervention: a social object introduced into a community to observe changes in behavior, attitudes, and social dynamics. This document outlines relevant literature, proposes hypotheses, and suggests experimental designs to study Kaeru-chan’s impact on community engagement and place attachment.
https://www.loom.com/share/d547cbe7d77e459a874c22e264a48bc4
Hypothesis + Experiment Design
Task Management | Research Team