Toward Needs-Conscious Design: Co-Designing a Human-Centered Framework for AI-Mediated Communication

2025-08-14

AI Summary

This study addresses the “empathy fog” in AI-mediated communication—i.e., the opacity of users’ empathic engagement, attention, and effort due to AI intermediation, which undermines authentic interpersonal connection—by proposing a human-centered “needs-aware design” framework. Methodologically, it integrates Nonviolent Communication theory with human-centered design practices, employing in-depth interviews, experience sampling (diary studies), and participatory co-design to identify three core design pillars and introducing the novel concept of “active consent” to ethically govern emotional data use. Contributions include: (1) establishing the first AI communication design paradigm explicitly centered on interpersonal needs awareness; (2) delivering actionable design concepts and an ethics-oriented questioning toolkit; and (3) empirically demonstrating that the framework enhances communicative intentionality, felt presence, and openness to needs—thereby augmenting, rather than replacing, genuine human connection.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Epistemology
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

We introduce Needs-Conscious Design, a human-centered framework for AI-mediated communication that builds on the principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC). We conducted an interview study with N=14 certified NVC trainers and a diary study and co-design with N=13 lay users of online communication technologies to understand how NVC might inform design that centers human relationships. We define three pillars of Needs-Conscious Design: Intentionality, Presence, and Receptiveness to Needs. Drawing on participant co-designs, we provide design concepts and illustrative examples for each of these pillars. We further describe a problematic emergent property of AI-mediated communication identified by participants, which we call Empathy Fog, and which is characterized by uncertainty over how much empathy, attention, and effort a user has actually invested via an AI-facilitated online interaction. Finally, because even well-intentioned designs may alter user behavior and process emotional data, we provide guiding questions for consentful Needs-Conscious Design, applying an affirmative consent framework used in social media contexts. Needs-Conscious Design offers a foundation for leveraging AI to facilitate human connection, rather than replacing or obscuring it.

Problem

• Develop human-centered AI communication framework
• Address empathy uncertainty in AI interactions
• Ensure consentful emotional data processing

Innovation

• Human-centered framework for AI communication
• Co-design with NVC trainers and users
• Addresses Empathy Fog in AI interactions