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TimelyPresent is a single purpose information appliance for asynchronous messaging to connect three-generation families whose members need to keep in touch across large distances and in different time zones. The touch screen devices are used in pairs situated in the homes of family members. A user at one end can create a short video clip that is represented as a gift-wrapped present to be sent to the home of another family member. To reinforce the present metaphor the design deliberately confounds common assumptions made about electronic devices in that the present having been sent is no longer accessible to the sender and is delayed so that it arrives at the local time that it was recorded. The paper first describes the process by which this design was derived from the qualitative data in the form of quotes from an open-ended probe study. This process served to preserve the richness of the information in …