Emotional Interaction

• Emotions and the user experience
• Expressive and emotional design
• Affective computing and emotional AI
• Persuasive technologies and behavioral change
• Anthropomorphism Based on material from: Sharp, H., Preece, J. and Rogers, Y.(2019). Interaction Design Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. 5th Ed. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

• How emotion relate to the user experience
• Provide examples of interfaces that are both pleasurable and usable
• Describe how technologies can be designed to change people’s attitudes and behaviour

• Should an interface be designed to improve how we feel?
  • If so how?
• Our moods and feelings are continuously changing
  • How does the interface keep track and know when to do something?
• What moods match which kinds of interfaces?
• How would you design an interface for when someone is happy, angry, sad, bored, focussed?

• Examine how people express themselves and read each other (emotional intelligence)
  • understand relationship between facial expressions, body language, gestures and tone of voice, e.g.
  • when people are happy they laugh and relax body posture
  • when they are angry they screw up their face
• Does being angry make you concentrate better or more distracted?
• When you are happy do you take more risks such as spend more money or buy more?
• Baumeister et al (2007) argue the relationship is more complex than a single cause-and-effect model

• Our emotional state changes how we think
  • when frightened or angry we focus narrowly and body responds by tensing muscles and sweating
    • more likely to be less tolerant
  • when happy we are less focused and the body relaxes
  • More likely to overlook minor problems and be more creative

• Reeves and Naas (1996) argue that computers should be made to apologize
• Should emulate human etiquette
• Would users be as forgiving of computers saying sorry as people are of each other when saying sorry?
• How sincere would they think the computer was being? For example, after a system crash:
  • “I’m really sorry I crashed. I’ll try not to do it again”
• How else should computers communicate with users?

• Many children talk to Alexa as if she was their friend
• They also learn that it is not necessary to say please and thank you to her when asking questions
• Is this lack of using etiquette a problem?
• Would it transfer over to real life situations?
  • e.g. demanding “Aunty, get me my drink.”
• Parents should still teach their kids good manners
• Alexa can be configured to be polite as well
• How much parental control should voice assistants be given?
• Would children find it weird or creepy that their Alexa (who is their friend) nags them to clean their teeth?

• Affective computing concerned with how to use computers to recognize and express emotions as humans do (Picard, 1998)
• Involves designing ways for people to communicate their emotional state
• Uses sensing technologies to measure GSR, facial expressions, gestures, body movement
• Explores how affect influences personal health
• Emotional AI aims to automate the measurement of feelings and behavior using AI to infer them from facial expressions and voice
• Aim is to predict user’s emotions and aspects of their behavior
  • e.g. what is someone most likely to buy online when feeling sad, bored or happy

• Cameras for measuring facial expressions
• Biosensors placed on fingers or palms to measure GSR
• Affective expression in speech (e.g. intonation, pitch, loudness)
• Body movement and gestures using accelerometers and motion capture systems

• Also used more to infer or predict someone’s behavior
  • e.g. determining a person’s suitability for a job or how they will vote at an election
• Do you think it is ethical that technology can read your emotions from your facial expressions or from your tweets?

• Mobile apps designed to help people monitor and change their behaviour (e.g. fitness, sleeping, weight)
• Can compare with online leader boards and charts, to show how they have done in relation to their peers and friends
• Also apps that encourage reflection that in turn increase well-being and happiness

• Focus on designing tech interventions to help people reduce their energy consumption
• An effective technique is to provide householders with feedback on their consumption
• Simple infographics and emoticons are often most powerful
  • Encourage people to reflect and see what they can change to reduce their energy consumption
• Peer pressure and social norms are also powerful methods

• Web used to deceive people into parting with personal details
  • e.g. Paypal, eBay, and won the lottery letters
• Allows Internet fraudsters to access their bank accounts and draw money from them
• Many vulnerable people fall for it
• The art of deception is centuries old but internet allows ever more ingenious ways to trick people

• Attributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects (e.g. cars, computers)
• Well known phenomenon in advertising
  • Dancing butter, drinks, breakfast cereals
• Much exploited in human-computer interaction
  • Make user experience more enjoyable, more motivating, make people feel at ease, reduce anxiety

• Attributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects (e.g. cars, computers)
• Well known phenomenon in advertising
  • dancing butter, drinks, breakfast cereals
• Much exploited in human-computer interaction
  • make user experience enjoyable, motivating, make people feel at ease, reduce anxiety
• Furnishing technologies with personalities can make them enjoyable to interact with

anthropomorphism

• Reeves and Naas (1996) found that computers that flatter and praise users in education software programs - > positive impact on them
• “Your question makes an important and useful distinction. Great job!”
• Students were more willing to continue with exercises with this kind of feedback

• Emotional aspects of interaction design are concerned with how to facilitate certain states (e.g. pleasure) or avoid reactions (e.g. frustration)
• Well-designed interfaces can elicit good feelings in people
• Aesthetically pleasing interfaces can be a pleasure to use
• Expressive interfaces can provide reassuring feedback to users
• Badly designed interfaces make people frustrated, annoyed, or angry
• Emotional AI and affective computing use AI and sensor technology for detecting people’s emotions through analyzing their facial expressions and conversations
• Emotional technologies can be designed to persuade people to change their behaviors
• Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human qualities to objects
• Increasingly robots are being used as companions in the home