Title :
Involving users in the design of a mobile office robot
Author :
Hüttenrauch, Helge ; Green, Anders ; Norman, Mikael ; Oestreicher, Lars ; Eklundh, Kerstin Severinson
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Numerical Anal. & Comput. Sci., R. Inst. of Technol., Stockholm, Sweden
fDate :
5/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
This paper describes the experiences from the iterative design of a fetch-and-carry-robot, to be used by motion-impaired people in an office environment. A user-centered approach was chosen, involving several steps of information elicitation to inform the design. We describe the main elements of the design process, the communication and interaction components of the final prototype system, and an evaluation of the system in the form of a longitudinal study. Results from this study confirmed that continuous testing with users is extremely important in the design process for service robots. The trials have also revealed that interaction design for robots should not focus only on the individual user, but that other members in the environment can be seen "secondary users" or "bystanders" who tend to relate to the robot actively in various ways. We conclude that these social and collaborative issues should be studied in future research.
Keywords :
graphical user interfaces; human computer interaction; human factors; man-machine systems; mobile robots; natural language interfaces; office automation; user centred design; human factors; human-robot interaction; man-machine system; mobile office robot design; user-centered approach; Collaboration; Graphical user interfaces; Human robot interaction; Man machine systems; Mobile robots; Process design; Prototypes; Service robots; Teleworking; Testing;
Journal_Title :
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TSMCC.2004.826281