{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ScholarlyArticle", "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#paper", "aboutThisFile": { "whatThisIs": "A research brief: a structured summary of one paper, prepared for seanrintel.com from the paper's full text.", "howItWasMade": "This brief was prepared with AI assistance and published by Sean Rintel. It is not the authors' published text.", "whatIsVerbatim": "Only 'quote' fields, figure captions and 'abstract' are the authors' own words. Research questions follow the paper's wording where it states them. Takeaway, summaries, answers, definitions and method are the site's plain-language paraphrase.", "howItIsChecked": "Before publication every quote is matched against the paper and every number in the brief is found in it. 'verified' is the date of the last check.", "howToUse": [ "For a quick answer, use 'takeaway' and 'questions'. For evidence, use 'findings' (each has a verbatim quote, its location in the paper and a 'url' anchored to that finding on the paper's page).", "Locations such as '§5.2, p. 9' refer to the version at 'pageNumbersReferTo'.", "For anything not covered here, read the paper itself: 'fullTextSources' lists free versions first.", "If 'researchOverview' is present, the paper is part of one of Sean Rintel's research overviews: it gives the overview's thesis, the claims this paper is evidence for and its role in each, and the other papers in the overview.", "To find other papers by Sean Rintel, use the catalogue at https://seanrintel.com/publications/index.json." ], "authorship": "Sean Rintel's role on each paper: lead author when he is first author, sole author when he is the only author, and otherwise senior author. Senior author here means the senior researcher on the team, whatever his position in the author list.", "howToCite": "Cite the paper, not this file: use 'citation' or the ready-made 'bibtex' (DOI where given) and name every author. Attribute paraphrase to the paper's findings, and use quotation marks only for 'quote' text." }, "name": "Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik", "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel", "name": "Sean Rintel", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/", "sameAs": [ "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0840-0546", "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xc25GRgAAAAJ", "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102369654", "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel" ] }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Richard Harper" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rod Watson" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kenton O'Hara" } ], "datePublished": "2015-04", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html", "citation": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015.", "bibtex": "@inproceedings{rintel2015me,\nauthor = {Rintel, Sean and Harper, Richard and Watson, Rod and O'Hara, Kenton},\ntitle = {Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik},\norganization = {ACM},\nbooktitle = {CHI 2015},\nyear = {2015},\nmonth = {April},\nurl = {https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html},\nnote = {CHI 2015 Workshop on Everyday Telepresence: Emerging Practices and Future Research Directions},\n}", "abstract": "In this position paper we outline the opportunities and challenges of pure asynchronous video messaging as an everyday utility. We recruited 53 users to try Skype Qik ‘in the wild’ for two weeks from its launch in October 2014. We found users orienting to an organizational principle that we term ‘Me For You’, a self-conscious yet creative orientation that allowed users to transform features of their everyday affairs into show-about-ables that can be subject to and warrant the interrogative gaze of a Qik recipient. We found that such acts implied a reciprocity that was valuable in some special contexts, while at other times proving dissonant with assumptions about mundane communicative practices between particular parties. To warrant another’s gaze requires artfulness, but in some relationships one might not want to demand that artfulness in return. We argue that richness is not a matter of mode but of perceived control, within which the morality of gaze represents an ongoing challenge for designing everyday telepresence.", "fullTextSources": [ { "kind": "freeAccess", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.pdf", "label": "Author's Copy" } ], "dataNotes": [ "This paper gives the trial's country counts as UK 22, Australia 17, Macau 14; the companion paper on the same Skype Qik trial ('The tyranny of the everyday in mobile video messaging') gives UK 23, Australia 17, Macau 13, which the authors confirm is correct." ], "fullTextAvailable": true, "takeaway": "Video-only messaging invites 'Me For You' (crafting oneself as worth watching for someone close). That makes treasured gifts, like singing for an overseas best friend, but imposes a 'tyranny of the ordinary' on everyday chat. Every message and reply must be worth watching, so one pair switched to text.", "whyItMatters": { "stateOfTheArt": { "summary": "Video messages date back to MMS and video calling services, and modern apps offer video as one mode among many.", "quote": "Qik exemplifies a new video niche (e.g. Pop, Glide, and Tiiny), and provides an interesting field experiment into the challenges and opportunities of pure asynchronous video messaging as an everyday utility.", "location": "§Introduction, p. 2" }, "contribution": { "summary": "The authors follow a video-only messaging app in everyday use from its launch. The authors treat gaze over video as a moral matter between people, not only a question of eye line and turn-taking, as earlier video research did.", "quote": "To warrant another's gaze requires artfulness, and in some relationships one might not want to demand that artfulness in return.", "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4" }, "whoCares": { "summary": "Designers of everyday telepresence and video messaging, who the paper argues must move beyond assuming that richer modes give better experiences.", "quote": "The design of everyday telepresence must account for this moral orientation.", "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4" } }, "researchQuestions": [ "What are the opportunities and challenges of pure asynchronous video messaging as an everyday utility, as seen in how people used Skype Qik 'in the wild'?" ], "concepts": [ { "term": "'Me For You'", "definition": "The authors' name for Qik users' main orientation:", "quote": "a self-conscious morality of creative and responsive obligation to being gazed at over video", "location": "§Me For You, p. 2" }, { "term": "Technologized interaction", "definition": "The lens the authors use for everyday app use:", "quote": "Technologized interaction refers to the vernacular categories and practices by which users treat technology as relevant to their interactions", "location": "§The vernacular of everyday app use, p. 2" }, { "term": "Tyranny of the ordinary", "definition": "What 'Me For You' confronts some users with:", "quote": "Recording a video asynchronously focuses attention on whether the mundane self and surroundings warrant viewing", "location": "§Me For You, p. 3" }, { "term": "Soft ephemerality", "definition": "Unlike the few-second 'hard ephemerality' of Snapchat:", "quote": "Since Qik videos are made in the production context of 'soft ephemerality' (persisting for up to two weeks)", "location": "§Me For You, p. 3" } ], "method": { "design": "Naturalistic two-week field trial of Skype Qik from its launch in October 2014, with a kick-off, 7 day check-in and 14 day debrief. Interviews, recorded messages, some real-time feedback and communication ecosystem drawings. No set times or tasks.", "setting": "Everyday use of Skype Qik, which allowed video messages of up to 42 seconds and no other modes.", "sample": "Convenience sample of 53 users from the UK (22), Australia (17) and Macau (14), aged 17 to 44 (70% between 19 and 25). 55% female, 45% male.", "n": 53, "duration": "Two weeks (14 days).", "analysis": "Qualitative analysis of users' vernacular descriptions and practices of using Qik." }, "findings": [ { "headline": "Each app has its own character.", "summary": "Asked to map their communication apps, the people trying Skype Qik described messaging, sharing and calling apps in distinct terms ('nowness', 'look-at-this-ness' and 'personal newsyness'). Video had a special place in each.", "quote": "Calling video involved a special need for ongoing video, proposing that the relationship is special and video can be used to manage that specialness.", "location": "§The vernacular of everyday app use, p. 2", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sthe-vernacular-of-everyday-app-use-p-2", "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015. (§The vernacular of everyday app use, p. 2)" }, { "headline": "Recording yourself, for one person.", "summary": "Qik was used overwhelmingly one-on-one. Users said that recording with the front camera, with no immediate response from the other person, focused them on recording themselves to be watched.", "quote": "We first noticed this in the overwhelming use of Qik one-on-one rather in groups (Figure 2), indicating an orientation to video as intimate.", "location": "§Me For You, p. 2", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-2", "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015. (§Me For You, p. 2)" }, { "headline": "Crafted gifts were valued.", "summary": "The uses people valued most were one-take performances made for someone special, such as singing for a best friend overseas, giving a family member a tour of a university, or flirting.", "quote": "All of these activities derive value from there making and receiving a one-take video that is known to be a crafted performance of the self for the other.", "location": "§Me For You, p. 3", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-3", "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015. (§Me For You, p. 3)" }, { "headline": "Ordinary chat stalled.", "summary": "For some users, in ordinary back-and-forth, having to reply in video made both starting and answering a message feel like it had to be worth watching. One pair stalled over a voiceless video of a chocolate bar and moved to a service where text was easier.", "quote": "wanted to say 'I hope that isn't all you're having for breakfast' but I had nothing to show back.", "location": "§Me For You, p. 4", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-4", "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015. (§Me For You, p. 4)" }, { "headline": "Rich media is not rich interaction.", "summary": "Video is a rich medium, but what people in the trial wanted was control over how much each message carried, so a rich medium did not make for rich interaction.", "quote": "Richness is a matter of fine-grained control, allowing each turn to be constructed with 'just enough' resources rather than the risk of providing 'more than necessary'.", "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sconclusions-p-4", "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015. (§Conclusions, p. 4)" } ], "questions": [ { "question": "What are video messages good for?", "answer": "Video messages work best as gifts, in what the authors call 'Me For You' (crafting oneself as worth watching for someone close). When 53 people tried the video-only app Skype Qik for two weeks, they valued messages visibly made for the recipient, such as singing for an overseas friend or flirting.", "source": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015.", "basedOn": [ { "location": "§Me For You, p. 2", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-2" }, { "location": "§Me For You, p. 3", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-3" } ] }, { "question": "Why might video-only messaging fail for everyday chat?", "answer": "Because of what the authors call the 'tyranny of the ordinary'. When every reply must be video, mundane surroundings have to seem worth watching. Among 53 people trying Skype Qik for two weeks, one pair stalled over a voiceless video of a chocolate bar and continued by text elsewhere.", "source": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015.", "basedOn": [ { "location": "§Me For You, p. 4", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-4" } ] }, { "question": "Is richer media like video always better for communication?", "answer": "No. The authors argue richness is a matter of fine-grained control (being able to build each turn with 'just enough' rather than more than necessary). Video can be overdetermined for mundane talk.", "source": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015.", "basedOn": [ { "location": "§Me For You, p. 4", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sme-for-you-p-4" }, { "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4", "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.html#at-sconclusions-p-4" } ] } ], "cites": [ { "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/video-calling-in-long-distance-relationships-the-opportunistic-use-of-audiovideo-distortions-as-a-relational-resource.html", "title": "Video Calling in Long-Distance Relationships: The Opportunistic use of Audio/Video Distortions as a Relational Resource", "location": "p. 4" } ], "quantitative": [], "implications": [ { "summary": "Design should move beyond assuming richer modes offer better experiences and give users control over producing message attention.", "quote": "users are looking for ways to control everyday production of message attention, creativity, delight, fit, flexibility, reportability, and uniqueness", "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4" }, { "summary": "Everyday telepresence design needs a deeper understanding of gaze as a moral orientation, since some relationships need a lighter touch.", "quote": "Sometimes the moral order of friendship needs a lighter touch.", "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4" } ], "limitations": [ { "summary": "A convenience sample that is not claimed to be representative.", "quote": "While we do not claim to have recruited a truly representative sample", "location": "§Method, p. 2" }, { "summary": "'Me For You' is not presented as the only or defining orientation to video in telepresence.", "quote": "'Me For You' is clearly not the only or defining orientation to video in all forms of telepresence", "location": "§Conclusions, p. 4" } ], "figures": [ { "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik/fig-2.webp", "caption": "Figure 2. Number of people in most Skype Qik threads.", "alt": "Pie chart of the number of people in most Skype Qik threads: the large majority were two people (me and a friend), with small slices for larger groups.", "location": "Fig. 2, p. 2", "credit": "Figure 2 from Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015." }, { "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik/fig-1.webp", "caption": "Figure 1. A typical communication technology ecosystem map. The user is in the center and individuals or groups of other users are connected to the user via colored lines representing different apps.", "alt": "A participant's hand-drawn map with 'Me' in the centre and lines in different colours, one per app, linking to friends, family and other groups.", "location": "Fig. 1, p. 2", "credit": "Figure 1 from Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015." }, { "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik/fig-6.webp", "caption": "Figure 6. The tyranny of the ordinary - how should one respond to a voiceless video of a chocolate bar?", "alt": "Qik screenshot of a video message showing only a chocolate bar on a table, with the thread's message thumbnails and the record button below.", "location": "Fig. 6, p. 4", "credit": "Figure 6 from Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, and Kenton O'Hara. 2015. Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik. CHI 2015." } ], "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/me-for-you-lessons-about-everyday-video-messaging-from-skype-qik.pdf", "verified": "2026-10-25", "studyFigure": { "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.", "study": { "kind": "single", "summary": "Two-week field trial of the video messaging app Skype Qik from its launch in October 2014, with 53 users in the UK, Australia and Macau.", "steps": [ { "label": "53 users", "detail": "A convenience sample of 53 users aged 17 to 44 in the UK, Australia and Macau." }, { "label": "Two weeks of use", "detail": "Everyday use with no set times or tasks. Qik allowed only video messages of up to 42 seconds." }, { "label": "Check-ins", "detail": "A kick-off, a 7 day check-in and a 14 day debrief, with interviews, recorded messages and drawings of each user's communication apps." }, { "label": "Analysis", "detail": "Qualitative analysis of how users described and used Qik in their own words." } ] }, "findings": { "legend": null, "stages": [ { "title": "Video for one person", "sub": "how users in the trial described and used Qik", "items": [ { "dir": "none", "text": "Users in the trial described each communication app in distinct terms, and video had a special place.", "detail": "Terms included nowness, look-at-this-ness and personal newsyness, from users' maps of their messaging, sharing and calling apps.", "evidence": [ "findings[0]" ] }, { "dir": "none", "text": "Users in the trial sent Qik messages overwhelmingly one-on-one rather than in groups.", "detail": "Users said recording with the front camera, with no immediate reply, focused them on recording themselves to be watched.", "evidence": [ "findings[1]" ] }, { "dir": "none", "text": "Users in the trial valued one-take performances made for someone special most.", "detail": "Examples included singing for a best friend overseas, giving a family member a tour of a university, and flirting.", "evidence": [ "findings[2]" ] } ] }, { "title": "When chat stalled", "sub": "everyday back-and-forth in video only", "items": [ { "dir": "none", "text": "For some users, replying in video made every message feel it had to be worth watching.", "detail": "One pair stalled over a voiceless video of a chocolate bar and moved to a service where text was easier.", "evidence": [ "findings[3]" ] }, { "dir": "none", "text": "The paper argues users in the trial wanted control over how much each message carried.", "detail": "In this trial, a rich medium like video did not make for rich interaction.", "evidence": [ "findings[4]" ] } ] } ] }, "keyTerm": "Me For You", "takeaway": "Video-only messages can become treasured 'Me For You' gifts, crafted one take at a time for someone close. That effort can stall everyday chat, so people may need control over how much each message carries." } }