Little tiny relationships. You make them, you break them. Catching the eye of another driver while you wait at a traffic light. Strangers exchanging greetings in an elevator. One person holding the door for the person behind.

What is the perceived importance of these interactions? What feelings form the basis for these temporary relationships to develop — suspicion, self-consciousness, caretaking, sharing? How are they experienced? Do they make us feel more vulnerable or more strong? What purpose does forgetting them serve?

How can we learn to design brief yet satisfying mobile encounters with the environment (think pervasive interaction, like Bluetooth advertising or Suica and other near-field payment technologies)? And with other mobile phone users (think contact information swapping or sharing entertainment content)? Which relationships are threatening? Reassuring? Intrusive? Supportive?

The questions become more complicated as you move from country to country, from culture to sub-culture. Need for personal space versus companionship. Desire for privacy versus being acknowledged. Resentment of interruption versus the value of pertinent local information. We risk triggering the alarms of deeply ingrained personal boundaries.

How are users going to feel as we permeate the environment with opportunities to interact? Leaving it all to user-initiated interaction just won’t do it. Not only does that minimize the revenue opportunities, it  leaves all the burden of reaching out to the user. It doesn’t leave room for the magical ideal of having the environment read your mind.