Showing papers by "Jodi Forlizzi published in 2007"

Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI

Abstract: For years the HCI community has struggled to integrate design in research and practice. While design has gained a strong foothold in practice, it has had much less impact on the HCI research community. In this paper we propose a new model for interaction design research within HCI. Following a research through design approach, designers produce novel integrations of HCI research in an attempt to make the right thing: a product that transforms the world from its current state to a preferred state. This model allows interaction designers to make research contributions based on their strength in addressing under-constrained problems. To formalize this model, we provide a set of four lenses for evaluating the research contribution and a set of three examples to illustrate the benefits of this type of research.

Natural person-following behavior for social robots

Abstract: We are developing robots with socially appropriate spatial skills not only to travel around or near people, but also to accompany people side-by-side. As a step toward this goal, we are investigating the social perceptions of a robot's movement as it follows behind a person. This paper discusses our laser-based person-tracking method and two different approaches to person-following: direction-following and path-following. While both algorithms have similar characteristics in terms of tracking performance and following distances, participants in a pilot study rated the direction-following behavior as significantly more human-like and natural than the path-following behavior. We argue that the path-following method may still be more appropriate in some situations, and we propose that the ideal person-following behavior may be a hybrid approach, with the robot automatically selecting which method to use.

How robotic products become social products: an ethnographic study of cleaning in the home

Abstract: Robots that work with people foster social relationships between people and systems. The home is an interesting place to study the adoption and use of these systems. The home provides challenges from both technical and interaction perspectives. In addition, the home is a seat for many specialized human behaviors and needs, and has a long history of what is collected and used to functionally, aesthetically, and symbolically fit the home. To understand the social impact of robotic technologies, this paper presents an ethnographic study of consumer robots in the home. Six families' experience of floor cleaning after receiving a new vacuum (a Roomba robotic vacuum or the Flair, a handheld upright) was studied. While the Flair had little impact, the Roomba changed people, cleaning activities, and other product use. In addition, people described the Roomba in aesthetic and social terms. The results of this study, while initial, generate implications for how robots should be designed for the home.

The Product Ecology: Understanding Social Product Use and Supporting Design Culture

Abstract: The field of interaction design has broadened its focus from issues surrounding one person interacting with one system to how systems are socially and culturally situated among groups of people. To understand the situations surrounding product use interaction design researchers have turned to qualitative, ethnographic research methods. However, stripped from underlying theory, these methods can be prescriptive at best. This paper introduces Product Ecology as a theoretical design framework to describe how products evoke social behavior, to provide a roadmap for choosing appropriate qualitative research methods and to extend design culture within HCI by allowing for flexible, design-centered research planning and opportunity-seeking. This product-centered framework is illustrated as a method for selecting a set of design research methods and for working with other research approaches that study people in naturalistic settings.

Robust, low-cost, non-intrusive sensing and recognition of seated postures

Abstract: In this paper, we present a methodology for recognizing seated postures using data from pressure sensors installed on a chair. Information about seated postures could be used to help avoid adverse effects of sitting for long periods of time or to predict seated activities for a human-computer interface. Our system design displays accurate near-real-time classification performance on data from subjects on which the posture recognition system was not trained by using a set of carefully designed, subject-invariant signal features. By using a near-optimal sensor placement strategy, we keep the number of required sensors low thereby reducing cost and computational complexity. We evaluated the performance of our technology using a series of empirical methods including (1) cross-validation (classification accuracy of 87% for ten postures using data from 31 sensors), and (2) a physical deployment of our system (78% classification accuracy using data from 19 sensors).

How interface agents affect interaction between humans and computers

Abstract: For many years, the HCI community has harbored a vision of interacting with intelligent, embodied computer agents. However, the reality of this vision remains elusive. From an interaction design perspective, little is known about how to specifically design an embodied agent to support the task it will perform and the social interactions that will result. This paper presents design research that explores the relationship between the visual features of embodied agents and the tasks they perform, and the social attributions that result. Our results show a clear link between agent task and agent form and reveals that people often prefer agents who conform to gender stereotypes associated with tasks. Based on the results of this work, we provide a set of emerging design considerations to help guide interaction designers in creating the visual form of embodied agents.

Slow messaging: intimate communication for couples living at a distance

Abstract: Technology increasingly mediates communication between people, particularly when they live at a distance. For couples in long-distance relationships, these technologies are a primary means of exchanging not only information but also emotions. This one-year project explores the communication needs of couples living at a distance to design an intimate and emotional means of interaction specifically for this context. A user-centered design process revealed opportunities for interactions that show time and effort or those that connect people through a shared sense of place. These observed needs were used to develop concepts which where validated by representative users.

My agent as myself or another: effects on credibility and listening to advice

Abstract: People consider other people who resemble them to be more persuasive. Users may consider embodied conversational agents, or ECAs, to be more persuasive if the agents resemble them. In an experimental study, we found that users rated the persuasiveness of agents that resemble them higher than other agents. However, actual advice-taking diverged from this pattern; when users created the agents, users changed their choices less when interacting with the agents that resembled them. We conducted a follow-up study and found that resemblance and self-esteem affect interactions with agents that resemble users. We discuss the use of self-report and behavioral data in evaluations of agent interfaces and how agents that resemble users might foster particular social interactions with a system. We suggest that agents that resemble users may be more persuasive in advising users about their actions and decisions.

Ambient Interfaces that Motivate Changes in Human Behavior.

Abstract: Peripheral or ambient displays move information from the periphery to the center of human attention and back. Our research group is interested in the interaction and interface design goal of how to best design ambient displays that help users to understand and change their behavior. We have found that there is often a disconnect between a person’s perceived and actual behavior, and we hypothesize that appropriately designed ambient displays can address this problem. Choosing physical activity as our first domain of exploration, we have developed the IMPACT system, which monitors physical activity throughout the day and provides feedback to the user in the form of detailed and abstracted displays. To date, we have explored abstraction and symbols, agents and avatars, and speech and sound user interfaces as display modalities that can present appropriate amounts of information in a lightweight fashion without being too distracting.

Your dinner's calling: supporting family dinnertime activities

Abstract: Families want to eat dinner together, but lack the time or resources to achieve their desires. A human-centered research and design process explores dual-income American families to better understand their needs and desires to see if technology can help them achieve their goal of having dinner together more often. Literature review, observations, contextualized interviews, and journaling aided the development of concepts which where validated by families. A conceptual service leveraging the existing family infrastructure of mobile phones and personal computers is also explored through scenarios.

Towards the Design and Development of Future Robotic Products and Systems

Abstract: Summary form only given. This talk will focus on design as a means to discover and understand the how to best design future robotic products. One important consideration is how to understand the human experience of use of these systems. Robotic products are a class of social products, artifacts, services, and systems that have social meaning and implications for people's social behavior and relationships. In this talk, I will begin with historic examples of products that inspired surprising and unintended social behaviors. I will then focus on robotic products specifically, showing how our research seeks to understand how simple social attributes in robotic products and systems makes them easier to adopt and less stigmatizing. In specific, I will discuss a set of particular design cues - gaze, motion, and speech and sound, and the concept of personality derived collectively from these primitives - discuss how alone and in combination, they might foster the adoption and use of robotic products and systems.

Designing computer systems for and with older users

Abstract: The ageing population in the developed world, and the centrality of computer systems in many aspects of daily life, are factors commonly cited as necessitating the provision of computer technologies appropriate for older users. Much of the research on older people and computer systems is undertaken and presented with a crusading zeal, based on the assumption that computer systems are, of themselves, a positive influence on the lives of older people (Selwyn et al. 2003). We have argued elsewhere that insufficient data exist to determine whether or not computer systems, as they are currently constituted, improve wellbeing among older users (Dickinson and Gregor 2006). In this special issue, we have focused on approaches, techniques and methodologies that support a fuller and more sophisticated analysis of the relationship – or potential relationship – between older adults and computer systems. The seven selected papers published here offer a variety of perspectives on this area, and add both empirical data and theoretical richness to the field. The paper by Convertino and colleagues explores theoretical issues of intergenerational collaborations using computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) in a work environment. The authors persuasively argue the vital point that older workers bring different – not fewer – talents and qualities to intergenerational work relationships. Comparative lack of technical knowledge is offset by valuable and extensive domain expertise and problem-solving skills. To maximize usefulness to industry, where such skills are highly valued, designers of such systems should aim to support these talents and qualities as well as those of younger workers. Another paper which benefits from a strongly theoretical approach is the work by Turner et al. who use ‘learned helplessness’ theory to explore the qualitative and discursive outcomes of a nine month study of older adults learning to use interactive systems. Their analysis of the experiences of the learners, and the ways in which these are described in conversation, provides us with important and rich information on the barriers that older adults perceive to their own computer use. An important theory which informs the paper by Sokoler and Svensson is that of non-stigmatizing technologies and the ways in which these might be developed. The work, based on qualitative field work in residential homes, focuses on the difficulties of inducing people explicitly to recognize and express feelings that might be regarded as stigmatizing, such as loneliness and isolation. Arguing that older adults themselves have various strategies for dealing with such problems in indirect, non-stigmatizing ways, the authors seek to develop technology that enables such strategies, rather than technology that stigmatizes the recipient through defining them as having a problem such as, for example, being ‘lonely’. These theoretical approaches and, in the case of Sokoler and Svensson, the production of a prototype system, are thought-provoking and useful, offering new insights into the issues surrounding older adults’ use – or non-use – of computer systems. Renaud and Ramsay report on the development of an identification and authentication procedure to increase the accessibility of web content to older users, through focusing on strengths which do not change with age, such as recognition of one’s own handwriting, rather than current approaches that demand perfect recall. The system developed provides a number of insights into ways in which designs can be made more widely accessible and in which the seriousness of user errors can be reduced without compromising security. The special issue concludes with three papers focused on methodological strategies for working with older adults. Rice et al. look at the use of requirements gathering techniques adapted from Forum Theatre in working with older adults. These techniques, the authors argue, allow the social and attitudinal implications of potential technologies to be explored with people who may have little technical knowledge, thus overcoming significant communication barriers between older users and designers. They report on sessions carried out with older participants on the topic of interactive television to illustrate the richness of the data gathered with these techniques. In his paper, Hawthorn explores adaptations to user centred design techniques using the example of the development and evaluation of a tutorial program, FileTutor, which teaches older people about file management. Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol. 26, No. 4, July –August 2007, 273 – 274