AGNETA & FRIDA: Browsing, Narrative and Emotion
Per Persson
Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), Box 1263, S-164 29 Kista, Sweden
perp@sics.se
ABSTRACT
The AGNETA & FRIDA system tries to incorporate
narratives and emotions into hypermedia browsing. In
contrast to other anthropomorphic agents, Agneta and
Frida try to distance themselves from the technology and
computer culture. Also, two agents in the interface
provide a better behavior dynamic than just one.
Keywords
AGNETA & FRIDA, agents, narratives, emotion, web
design, anthropomorphic interfaces
INTRODUCTION
In the last years autonomous agents have attracted
increasing attention in educational and entertainment
systems, and in the general field of artificial intelligence.
These systems display mostly single characters facing the
user and helps her guides her into the information-action
space [cf. 5]. The AGNETA & FRIDA system aims at
expanding these ambitions into the web browsing
situation and present new ways to look at character
design.
DESCRIPTION
PROTOTYPE
OF
THE
AGNETA
&
FRIDA
On the user’s personal desktop are placed two animated
females (mother and daughter), sitting in their
living-room chairs, watching the browser (more or less
like watching television). The motoric or verbal
behaviors of the characters are triggered by three sorts of
cues.
Firstly, behaviors are connected to the user’s activity
(onload, onclick, on mouseover) and document content
(text, imagery, sound files, error messages, browser
malfunctions etc.). These comments can be general
everyday speculations to what something on a site means,
or what the purpose with the site is or how they like the
design [ill. 1]. Agneta & Frida are also very skeptical to
computer culture in general and its male dominance in
particular. Humor and irony are main features in their
dialogues. Of course, in the demo the connection between
behaviors and content is hard coded (in specifically
chosen set of about 40 websites), but in the future one
could imagine text comprehension software that
produced some sort of understanding of text and images
and then automatically triggered an appropriate behavior.
None of these behaviors are repetitive – once executed
they will not come back.
Another set of behaviors/comments are of a more general
character, unrelated to content or user’s activity. This
includes blinking, picking noses, going to the
toilet/kitchen, drinking coffee or general gossiping
about uncle Harry and Miss Andersson (the owner of a
repulsive poodle that often enters Agneta and Frida's
back yard, and about which they occasionally fantasize
killing). Some of these are repetitive (e.g. blinking,
yawning), and they are triggered at certain intervals when
there are no other behaviors rolling.
Thirdly, the user can choose to let small narratives run
through the browsing session, interweaving with the two
types above. So far, the prototype provides one comedy
("Poodles: Cute Fluff or Ambassadors of Evil?") and one
melodrama. By clicking on the right mouse button the
user is presented with a menu in which she can make the
choice between different genres and titles.
The intensity of all these behaviors can be regulated by
the user depending on the browsing purposes (serious
information seeking, wayfinding, exploration or
entertainment browsing etc.). Through a pop up menu,
the user can set the level of activity (1-5) which to
different degrees disconnects some behaviors and defines
Illustration 1. Agneta & Frida reacting to the contents of the web site of a film production
company.
the time interval between the remianing ones.
Another feature is a search engine situated in their living
room drawer on the right hand side of the screen. Here
the user cannot only search for words in the documents as
a usual search engine, but also for words in the Agneta
and Frida comments history, and then be presented with
the page in question. The user might better remember a
joke or a story of an image/page, rather than the
information as such, which might be helpful when trying
to find her way back.
As the demo is implemented on a set of websites about
independent film production companies, and thus aims at
people in the age range of 15-25, the comments, stories
and behaviors of Agneta and Frida are designed with this
target group in mind. Another target audience or another
purpose with the site will for sure require other types of
behaviors.
The fact that AGNETA & FRIDA contains two
character/agents, differs from most agent system, which
display only one. In comparison to monologue, dialogue
makes comments and behavior, and not least, humor and
irony, more natural and dynamic.
RATIONALES
Thus, AGNETA & FRIDA is more about character
design, than a new software tool (we have been using
Microsoft Agent Tool [7] and JavaScript). In this respect,
the project takes its cues from three theoretical directions.
First, browsing the web or many types of hypermedia
does not encourage the user to infer connections between
nodes. The abstract nature of the information makes it
difficult for users to relate information 'events',
particularly users with low spatial ability [4, 2, 10], and
this might contribute to the 'lost in hyperspace'
experience. In contrast, a narrative, which also consists of
information 'nodes' (events, actions etc.), cues the
reader/spectator to create a rich mental model consisting
of spatial, temporal and foremost causal connections
between the explicit information given in the text [3, 6].
By annotating information nodes with a story or a joke
and having narratives run over a whole browsing session,
AGNETA & FRIDA encourages the user to construct a
mental model of browsing that downplays the spatial and
navigational aspects of hypermedia, and emphasizes the
temporal-linear of narrative, hopefully without sacrificing
the freedom and interactivity. In the evaluation studies
(See Höök, Sjölinder, Ereback & Persson, this
workshop), the metaphors chosen by the subjects to
describe their experince (in spatial, abstract or narrative
terms), will one litmus-paper on whether this ambition
was fullfilled or not.
Second, the regained interest in emotional and affective
sides of computing maintains that the intimate interaction
between cognition and emotion is a fundamental aspect
of everyday life as well as human-computer interaction
[e.g. 8, 9]. Emotions include irony, humor, delight etc.,
but in connection to narratives, moral judgment of
characters (bad guy-good guy), suspense, empathy,
surprise and fear are just as important. The comments and
stories of Agneta and Frida, will hopefully trigger
emotional annotations to the information nodes, which
will not only enhance memory of this information
(emotional ‘landmarks’ in information space), but also
transform the way the user look at information.
Third, Agneta and Frida introduce irony and reflexivity
into the interface. Through history, new media have
always taken themselves very seriously (cf. with the first
years of film and television) and the computer is no
exception in this respect. Computers and public software
are still considered to be very serious and important
things and agents are still extremely polite and have no
time to comment or make fun of their own activities or
faults. In contrast, Agneta and Frida make remarks on the
shortcomings of the system, acknowledge the frustration
of a user encountering 'file-not-found' messages and
make fun of clumsy design. It is not a coincidence that
Agneta and Frida mostly face the browser along with us,
rather than looking out towards us. Agneta and Frida are
on 'the user's side' of the screen and the distancing mood
in many comments emphasizes this feature.
SUMMARY
The Microsoft Agent provide a tool for introducing
interactive characters into the browsing interface, both as
educators, marketing agents, guides or entertainers
(where Agneta & Frida seem to land in-between the two
latter categories). But neither technology nor
programming is going to be the major obstacle in making
these acceptable for a wider group of users. The effort to
make users want to stay in information space will depend
on the design of agents, including their attitudes, humor
and distance vis-à-vis problems of technology in general
and of human computer interaction in particular.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was a part of the PERSONA project, within
EU's long term research program, i3. The prototype was
made in appreciated corporation with Jarmo Laaksolahti
and Christian Jonasson. Oskar Andersson made the
animations. Kia Höök commented constructively on this
paper.
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