Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction: Affordances Topple Realism and Aesthetics

In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current study investigated the effects of form realism...

Surprise and humor in product design: Designing sensory metaphors in multiple modalities

When information from two or more sensory modalities conflicts, this can evoke a surprise reaction as well as feelings of amusement, interest, confusion or disappointment. In concurrence to joke theory, we argue that people appreciate and enjoy appropriate incongruities that can be related back to the product, whereas they are confused by and...

Once more, into the soup

In one of the earlier essays in this department, we discussed a number of acronyms all having to do with system design, and all having the form "x-centered design." The purpose of that essay was to demonstrate a broad framework within which to understand human-centered computing (HCC), and also to show the various convergences and divergences of...