Changing patterns of both work-related mobility and domestic arrangements mean that ‘mobile workers’ face challenges to support and engage in family life whilst travelling for work. Phatic devices offer some potential to provide connection at a distance alongside existing communications infrastructure. Through a bespoke design process, incorporating phases of design ethnography, critical technical practice and provotyping we have developed Ritual Machines I and II as material explorations of mobile workers’ lives and practices. In doing this we sought to reflect upon the practices through which families accomplish mobile living, the values they place in technology for doing ‘family’ at a distance and to draw insights in to the potential roles of digital technology in supporting them. We frame the design of our phatic devices in discussion of processes of bespoke design, offer advice on supporting mobile workers when travelling and articulate the values of making a technology at home when designing for domestic and mobile settings.