Proposed Prompter Communication System for Supporting Non‑Verbal Expressions in order to Encourage Development of Deep and Intimate Interpersonal Relationships

SUMMARY A text-based computer-mediated communication system, called the Prompter Communication System （PCS） , in which 1 to 3 black circular images （“●”） are embedded onto the background of a text-field canvas, is proposed, and its ability to support non-verbal expression by encouraging the creation of pictogram-like pictorial-text messages during telecommunication sessions is examined. During the investigation, the concepts and features of emoticons and pictograms were integrated into the proposed system. Based on these concepts and features, it was observed that PCS was able to enhance and enrich the user experience and encourage participants to express their thoughts, feelings and emotions in a pictorial-text style, created using composite symbols and text in conjunction with the “●” prompter image, thereby mitigating the lack of emotional and visual expression in plain text messages, which is an essential element for intimacy and the development of deep interpersonal relationships. Communication experiments using the prototype PCS system have been conducted, where a Normal Communication System, NCS, which uses only a plain text-field canvas without the “●” prompter image, is compared with the PCS. The experimental results indicate that communication conducted using the PCS encourages the creation of an increased number of messages based on the pictorial-text style compared to when using NCS. Further analysis into the self-disclosure level of the message contents has shown that using the PCS results in a higher average frequency of the appearance of high selfdisclosure information, with 65% fewer textual expressions in comparison to using NCS.