Exploratory study for social media platform based Human-Robot
Interaction
Introduction
This document describes the overall interview design of exploratory interview for our system.
The issues such as 1) data/information we want to get, 2) target user group selection, 3) interview
preparation,4) interview questions draft 5) interview procedure, 6) data analysis, 7) conclusion
and findings. The necessary justification is provided here as well.
Description – Overview for participants to know just enough about our research and the
interview
As current domestic robot such as iRoomba (cleaning robot) is quite popular, we want to learn
about how well these robots are used and whether the interfaces are good enough. During the
interview, the questions will be around Human-robot Interaction. You will be asked to perform
the interaction on the iRoomba to show how you typically interact with it. In addition to that, we
will provide two prototypes which you will use to perform the interaction with an iRoomba robot.
After that, some questions will be around how you feel about using those interfaces. The
interview will take approximately one hour. If you have anything that needs clarification, please
ask me. The interview is completely confidential.
Data/information to collect during the interview
This is our exploratory interview which targets at collecting data ranging from users’ typical
general feeling about current support of interaction between human and domestic robot to
systems requirements gathering.
A. Overall feeling about interaction with domestic robot? How much are they aware of such
technology
B. General opinion about the custom-build interface – scale 1-5
C. How do they interact with robot? This could be done through observation in context.
D. When and where do they use them? Their typical habit, observer carefully
E. What are the parts they found current HRI difficult to use, what are their wishes and
suggestions?
#######Second part – regarding social media platforms############
F. How much do they know about social media platforms such as SMS, MSN, Facebook,
and digital calendar, and how frequently do they use them?
G. Why do they like using them? – This as Shen mentioned could be used to support why
they are popular and at the same time how our novel HRI method leverage such tools to
make HRI more appealing
H. When and why do they use such media platform?
#######Second part – Prototype evaluation############
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
Rate of our proposed methods
Observer them while using the system
Which parts are good and which parts are not
Constructive feedback on which part users might have trouble
Requirements gathering – what they want to the system to be like and how do users want
to perform the HRI
Target user group selection
-
-
Young couple (2-couple) who has no experience with using domestic robots – these
people are very busy and they move a lot which will be the quite important stakeholders
for our system. (For each couple, using the focus group as a way to conduct the interview)
People who has some experience using domestic robot such as iRoomba – 2 people
Should we consider the usage frequency of our listed social media platform?
Interview preparation
The interview will be held in my Lab, COM1-02-44. I will set up the two working prototypes
(Calendar interface and MSN interface) which would allow participants to better understand our
work by letting them try theses interfaces. This would be a more effective way to convey the idea
to them than just talking about theory which they might not fully understand or pay attentions.
(External aids aimed at eliciting feedback or reactions relevant to the subject at hand are known
as “probes”) For the other two interfaces I will simulate the working scenario as well.
The whole interview might need video recording, so these video set up should be prepared.
Things to be careful of:
Discount favorable responses from users when they are aware that they are evaluating a design
you have designed
Interview questions draft
Initial exploration:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Have you ever heard of domestic robots?
Have you thought about having one domestic robot?
What do you usually ask your domestic robots to do and when do you do that?
How frequently do you use the domestic robot?
5.
6.
7.
8.
Could you describe how you interact with the robot?
If you could have one, how do you want to communicate with it?
Have you found it easy, flexible and interesting to interact with your robot?
What would you say are the biggest problems you have with current interface of your
robots?
9. Currently, when talking about social media platform, we refer to tools such as Instant
Messenger, digital calendar, Short Message Service (SMS), Facebook, Twitter etc. Have
you heard any of these?
10. How frequent do you use those tools?
11. Who do you communicate with using these tools?
12. Do you find using these tools convenient and appealing?
13. Could you share your opinions about these social media platforms?
Requirement gathering:
14. What features you want the current domestic robots to have?
15. How do you want the robot to perform the tasks?
16. Could you describe the ideal scenario how you interact with your robot?
17. Do you want to monitor and control your robot remotely?
18. What do you think is the best way to interact with you robot?
19. Do you want to use the above mentioned social media platforms to control your robots if
possible? What are the features you want from such system?
20. Does it happen that when you suddenly want your domestic robot to do something for
you while you cannot do that due to not being around the robot? Do you feel remote
control is necessary?
21. Does it ever happen to you when you want to reschedule or cancel a pre-assigned task
from your robot? Or do you think that current interface is necessary to support that?
Subjective evaluation:
22. Do you find the interface easy to use?
23. Do you understand the way to interact with your robot?
24. Where do you have trouble, if any, with the interface?
25. Any parts or features of the interface you found particular useful or helpful?
26. How does the interface compare to your current tool?
27. What (if anything) would you like to change about this tool?
Wrapping up:
28. Do you have other things regarding those interfaces and domestic robot to talk?
Comments:
If the interview is going to be fully-structured, then we should strictly follow those questions,
and if it is semi-structured or un-structured, then we should raise different questions based on
users’ answers dynamically.
What exact question we want to ask users?
Data analysis and findings
This part is for showing the finding after doing the data analysis from the interview. These
findings will be summarized into our paper.
Discussion and conclusion
The discussion about the unexpected data should be listed here, which might be helpful for
refining our system design. Conclusion should be used to convince others the usefulness and
novelty about our system – strong motivation
I will first try to finish the MSN interface and let users have a better understanding of how our
system works instead of just verbally explaining to them and let them think more about when
they would use such interface and whether such interface is useful or not. During such period of
time, I will record their comments and feedback.
Some notes from the book:
Think about the general conversation the users could initiate with a robot
<perform the fully structured interview>
Initial exploration – You’ve got a strong feeling that the current tools are insufficient but you
would like to develop a better understanding of what people are doing and what they would like
to do. Sit down with various potential users to understand their goals and needs. Remember the
primary goal is to understand user needs and goals, hence asking high-level questions about
types of functionality that are and aren’t available
Interview strategies –significant more efforts are needed for semi-structured interview, for me,
I think the fully-structured interview is more appropriate since I do not have much experience in
interviewing.
During the interview – establish the Rapport in a few minutes and make the interviewees feel
comfortable and make you your impression for them is professional, friendly and liable.
Introduction – brief introduction to your research
Getting down to business