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.

REFERENCES

• 1: Apple Computer, Inc. Knowledge Navigator (1991).
• 2: Apple Computer, Inc., Macintosh human interface guidelines, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1992
• 3: Campbell, D., Crichton, L., Hansen, J. I., Webber, P.: A New Edition of the SVIB: The Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance 7(2) (1974) 92--95.
• 4: Catrambone, R., Stasko, J., Xiao, J.: Anthropomorphic Agents as a UI Paradigm: Experimental Findings and a Framework for Research. Technical Report GIT-GVU-02-10. Georgia Institute of Technology (2002)
• 5: Cowell, A. and Stanney, K. M., "Embodiement and Interaction Guidelines for Designing Credible, Trustworthy Embodied Conversational Agents," presented at Intelligent Virtual Agents, Kloster Irsee, Germany, 2003. P 301--309.
• 6: Andrew J. Cowell , Kay M. Stanney, Manipulation of non-verbal interaction style and demographic embodiment to increase anthropomorphic computer character credibility, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, v.62 n.2, p.281-306, February 2005 [doi>10.1016/j.ijhcs.2004.11.008]
• 7: Carl F. DiSalvo , Francine Gemperle , Jodi Forlizzi , Sara Kiesler, All robots are not created equal: the design and perception of humanoid robot heads, Proceedings of the 4th conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, June 25-28, 2002, London, England [doi>10.1145/778712.778756]
• 8: Abbe Don , Susan Brennan , Brenda Laurel , Ben Shneiderman, Anthropomorphism: from Eliza to Terminator 2, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.67-70, May 03-07, 1992, Monterey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/142750.142760]
• 9: Dryer
• 10: Gardner, B., Sidney J. L. The Product and the Brand. Harvard Business Review 33 (March-April 1955), 33--39.
• 11: Gemperle, F., Powers, A., DiSalvo, C., Forlizzi, J., and Kiesler, S.: Product Content Analysis Method Applied to Walkers. White Paper, Carnegie Mellon University (2004).
• 12: William Joseph King , Jun Ohya, The representation of agents: anthropomorphism, agency, and intelligence, Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems: common ground, p.289-290, April 13-18, 1996, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada [doi>10.1145/257089.257326]
• 13: Koda, T., Maes, P. Agents with Faces: The Effect of Personification. Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Robot and Human Communication (1996) 189--194.
• 14: Laurel, B.: Interface Agents: Metaphors with Character. In (Eds: Laurel, B.): The Art of Hu-man-Computer Interface Design, Addison-Wesley (1990) 355--365.
• 15: Pattie Maes, Agents that reduce work and information overload, Communications of the ACM, v.37 n.7, p.30-40, July 1994 [doi>10.1145/176789.176792]
• 16: Middleton, S. E.: Interface Agents: A Review of the Field. Technical Report ECSTR-IAM01-001, University of Southampton (2001).
• 17: Nass, C. and Brave, C. (2005). Wired for Speech. Boston, MA: MIT Press.
• 18: Oren, T., Salomon, G., Kreitman, K., Don, A.: Guides: Characterizing the Interface. In (Eds: Laurel, B.): The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Addison-Wesley (1990) 355--365.
• 19: Salvatore Parise , Sara Kiesler , Lee Sproull , Keith Waters, My partner is a real dog: cooperation with social agents, Proceedings of the 1996 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, p.399-408, November 16-20, 1996, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/240080.240351]
• 20: Parise, S., Kiesler, S., Sproull, L., and Waters, K.: Cooperating with Life-Like Interface Agents. Computers in Human Behavior, 15 (1999) 123--142.
• 21: Byron Reeves , Clifford Nass, The media equation: how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1996
• 22: Janet H. Walker , Lee Sproull , R. Subramani, Using a human face in an interface, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.85-91, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191708]
• 23: Zimmerman, J., Ayoob, E., Forlizzi, J., and McQuaid, M. "Putting a Face on Embodied Interface Agents." DPPI05 (Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces) Conference Proceedings. Eindhoven, the Netherlands, (2005) 233--248.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.0 GENERAL

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)