The Very Basic Rules in Technology Development (not only Robots)
If you develop any kind of technology that will be used by people (and for 99per cent you hope it will), you have to consider human factors.
Do you think it is obvious? Congratulations!
Unfortunately, at many university courses of computer science or engineering, students learn everything about programming — yes, it is crucial.
However, these students never hear of how to think of “effective, efficient, and usable interfaces that require the inclusion of the user’s perspective throughout the entire design and development process.
Many times interfaces are developed late in the design and development process with minimal user input. The result tends to be an interface that simply cannot be employed to complete the required tasks or the actual users are unwilling to accept the technology.” (more in the paper by JA Adams, 2002: Critical Considerations for Human-Robot Interface Development whose brilliant thoughts are used in this simple blog post).
This is the same in the case of social robots — 12 years ago, Bartneck&Forlizzi pointed it out saying that “a social robot should follow the behavioral norms expected by people”. So, how to do in practice?
Johnson in 2000 points out numerous issues with Graphical User Interfaces. Many of the issues that can be raised also apply to service robotics and other technology development.
- Focus on the users and their tasks, not the technology.
2. Consider function first, presentation later.
3. Conform to the users’ view of the task.
4. Do not complicate the users’ task.
5. Deliver information, not just data.
6. Design for responsiveness.
7. Try it out on users, then fix it!
…. and try it …. and fix it …. and try it again!
Yes, I am talking about User Centered Design. Incorporate the user into the design process — it does not matter if you develop a mobile app, web page, an aircraft control station or any other product.
My background is the human-robot interaction(HRI) and here, a technique called „Wizard of Oz“ is being used. Robots are operated by other people as puppets (some researchers claim that this is not a human-robot interaction than, but human-human interaction via robot).
How to start designing and developing a new HRI application?
Green and his colleagues in 2004 suggest the following method for WoZ HRI scenario construction:
- User instruction gives information to the user to help them perform the intended task. (i.e., “What should the user do?”)
- Behavior hypotheses reflect the designer’s beliefs about users actions within the scenario. (i.e., “What will the user do?”)
- Robot behavior specifies what the robot will do, for any level of autonomy. (i.e., “What should the robot do?”)
Imagine constructing a robotic exoskeleton without having any knowledge of its future users… why not all other types of technology have adopted this process?
PS Although we — engineers are not psychologists, I believe that we are able to respond these questions and develop new technology to serve people. A psychologist´s help is always appreciated :)
