P1 is a middle school teacher in Texas in her 60’s. She is separated from her husband during the work week and from her daughter and grandchildren who live in Washington. She and her husband mainly call and text daily, and she uses different forms of video messaging to connect with family in Washington. P1 prefers scheduled or planned video calls as she feels her loved ones are more engaged. There is no form of communication she would not use as long as she is able to communicate with her loved ones. She wishes she was able to build a stronger relationship with her grandchildren over the long distance communication tools available.

P2 is a 41 year old male who moved away from his family to the Pacific Northwest 23 years ago. He prefers to use FaceTime and texting to communicate with his loved ones across the country. He misses the emotion, body language, tone, and attitude that can be lost in current long distance communication tools. He has a 7 year old son and wants to maintain a connection between his child and loved ones, though feels this is difficult without the organic feeling of being together.

P3 is a third-year international student at the University of Washington. P3 has been living in Seattle for about 4 years now, and her parents live in New Delhi, India. She video calls with her parents (mainly her mother) about once a week and texts every few days. She struggles with the lack of emotional connection and physical interactions from long distance communication tools, and she often has issues with internet connection for these calls.

A father of 2 separated from his two children. P4 is a non-custodial parent due to military orders. He speaks with his children about 1-2 times a week with video messenger. His children are ages 8 and 10. They both struggle with using long-distance communication tools. P4 prefers video messaging because he can see the children’s facial expressions and help keep them focused.

P5 is a father of 1 child, aged 9. He is a non-custodial parent due to divorce. He speaks to his child about 1 once a week over video messenger. Phone messaging does not interest his child. P5 mentions the difficulty in being a parental figure in the child’s life due to the separation.

Item descriptionP6 is 41 and has one 7 year-old child. She has lived away from her loved ones for 19 years after moving to the Pacific Northwest for school and work. She uses many modes of long-distance communication, but prefers video and text messaging. She dislikes how one-sided long-distance communication can be and acknowledges the loss of connection that results from using these tools versus being physically together.

P7 is a male in his late 30s living in the Pacific Northwest with three children, a teenager who lives with his ex-wife, and two, aged 6 and 9, with his current wife. He moved to the United States 16 years ago from the Netherlands. He has weekly video calls with his family and likes the ability to share his visual environment and the kids' activities. He purchased an iPhone for his mother so that they can use FaceTime as opposed to other video messaging tools. P7 feels video messaging is a satisfactory way to connect and communicate, but misses everyday interactions which make conversation easier and more natural.

P8 is a female in her 70s with 2 adult children in their 30s. She lives in Wisconsin and is separated from her sons, one in New York, the other in Seattle. She uses email, text, and FaceTime to communicate with her loved ones. P8 prefers email and text messaging as the communication tends to be more succinct. She doesn’t care for video messaging as she feels it prolongs conversations and the participants digress from the topics of conversation. P8 does, however, see advantages of visual communication tools. She also pointed out, in comparison to in-person communication tools, online tools lack the ability to see the person as a whole. One can only view what the communication partner chooses to share on the video screen.