Social Proximity Applications (SPAs) have facilitated social networking in the real world. However, most applications are deployed in mobile devices (i.e. smartphone, PDA, tablet) restricted to traditional input and output (I/O) interfaces i.e. button, keyboard and screen. For people with low interpersonal skills, the requirements imposed by traditional interfaces can make their problems worse. In contrast, this paper describes the Icebreaker T-shirt, designed with natural interfaces to ease face-to-face communication when meeting new people. We discuss its design concept, technical requirements and user experience based on an experiment conducted with shy users in which 73% reported that the shirt was helpful to their meetings with strangers
