1. ©2011 CSCD 487/587 Human Computer Interface Winter 2013 Lecture 10 Emotional Response to Interfaces

2. ©2011 2www.id-book.com Overview Goal of interaction design is to develop products that people enjoy and find useful So, what do we want users to feel when they use our products? Want them to learn, to play, to enjoy, to trust, at very least not to HATE our products All together we call this interaction, Emotional Interaction

3. ©2011 Emotions and User Experience Shopping On-line Is this a “fun” experience for most peoples? Search for things, select or type in product numbers Enter payment information, maybe more than once Stress about did it go through or did you do it right Wait to get confirmation email … then, get notified it shipped All in all – a stressful experience for most of us !!!

4. ©2011 4www.id-book.com Expressive interfaces Provide reassuring feedback that can be both informative and fun But can also be intrusive, causing people to get annoyed and even angry Color, icons, sounds, graphical elements and animations are used to make the ‘look and feel’ of an interface appealing Conveys an emotional state In turn this can affect the usability of an interface People are prepared to put up with certain aspects of an interface (e.g. slow download rate) if the end result is appealing and aesthetic

5. ©2011 Expressive Interfaces Icons and animations have been used to indicate the current status of a computer or cell phone Classic from 1980's and 90's was happy Mac icon Appeared on screen when computer was booted Smiling icon signaled friendliness and happiness that computer was ok Sad icon indicated that computer had failed to boot up Another version of this http://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/gallery_visual_history_f amous_mac_icons

6. ©2011 Expressive Interfaces Other ways that have been used to convey status of system Animations of every kind http://memeart.tripod.com/AnimatedComputers.html Sounds for email arriving, windows closing http://soundbible.com/tags-computer.html Not everyone likes sounds Here is an article on turning off all alerts http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/08/how-do-you-overcome- alert-pollution/ Vibrations for phone calls instead of rings

7. ©2011 7www.id-book.com User-created Expressiveness Users have created a range of emoticons - compensate for lack of expressiveness in text communication: Happy :) Sad :< Sick :X Mad >: Very angry >:-( Also use of icons and shorthand in texting and instant messaging has emotional connotations, e.g. LOL, I 12 CU 2NITE

8. ©2011 8www.id-book.com Would you use any of these?

9. ©2011 9www.id-book.com Which one do you prefer?

10. ©2011 Marcus and Teasley study Marcus (1992) proposed interfaces for different user groups Left dialog box was designed for white American females Who “prefer a more detailed presentation, curvilinear shapes and absence of some of the more brutal terms... favored by male software engineers.” Right dialog box was designed for European adult male intellectuals Who like “suave prose, a restrained treatment of information density, and a classical approach to font selection” Teasley et al (1994) found this not to be true European dialog box was preferred by all and was considered most appropriate for all users round dialog box was strongly disliked by everyone !!!!!

11. ©2011 Frustrating Interfaces What happens when interfaces cause negative emotions? As we already noted, interfaces can be complex, DVD players, phones, clocks etc or just normal applications such as Word

12. ©2011 Example of Frustrated User Technical Blogger http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/microsoft-bad-user- experience-is-cultural/ “I just lost an hour of work to Microsoft Word because it clears the clipboard every time you start it up fresh. It’s been doing it for years. What idiot at Microsoft thought this would be a good idea? What group of idiots let it continue for years? I have a dim recollection that this is done for some sort of security reason … But I don’t use any other app that has this behaviour.” Bob Warfield

13. ©2011 13www.id-book.com Frustrating interfaces A more complete list of frustrating reasons When an application doesn’t work properly or crashes When a system doesn’t do what the user wants it to do When a user’s expectations are not met When a system does not provide sufficient information to enable user to know what to do When error messages pop up that are vague, obtuse or condemning When appearance of an interface is garish, noisy, gimmicky or patronizing When system requires users to carry out too many steps to perform a task, only to discover a mistake was made earlier and they need to start all over again

14. ©2011 14www.id-book.com Gimmicks Amusing to designer but not user, e.g. Clicking on a link to a website only to discover that it is still ‘under construction’

15. ©2011 15www.id-book.com Error messages “The application Word has unexpectedly quit due to a type 2 error.” How about a little honesty? “the application has expectedly quit due to poor coding in the operating system” Shneiderman’s guidelines for error messages include: Avoid using terms like FATAL, INVALID, BAD Audio warnings Avoid UPPERCASE and long code numbers Messages should be precise rather than vague Provide context-sensitive help

16. ©2011 16www.id-book.com Website Error Messages

17. ©2011 17www.id-book.com Better Error Message “The requested page /helpme is not available on the web server. If you followed a link or bookmark to get to this page, please let us know, so that we can fix the problem. Please include the URL of the referring page as well as the URL of the missing page. Otherwise check that you have typed the address of the web page correctly. The Web site you seek Cannot be located, but Countless more exist.”

18. ©2011 Helping Frustrated Users User Agents … 1990's Supposed to help users learn programs and be less frustrated with technology Successful? Microsoft pioneered an entire class of agent software, Bob for the novice user Agents were friendly and likeable such as a pet dog or a bunny plus a room metaphor like a cozy living room

19. ©2011 19 Bob People didn't like Bob. Too cute and childlike!!!

20. ©2011 Helping Users Other attempts at alleviating frustration Clippy another Microsoft creation People seemed to HATE this moronic paperclip!!! Came out with Windows 98 Why do you think it backfired?

21. ©2011 21www.id-book.com Anthropomorphism An·thro·po·mor·phism (ān’thrə-pə-môr’fĭz’əm) Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena 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

22. ©2011 22www.id-book.com Which do you prefer? 1. As a welcome message “Hello Chris! Nice to see you again. Welcome back. Now what were we doing last time? Oh yes, exercise 5. Let’s start again.” “User 24, commence exercise 5.”

23. ©2011 23www.id-book.com Which do you prefer? 2. Feedback when get something wrong 1. “Now Chris, that’s not right. You can do better than that.Try again.” 2. “Incorrect. Try again.” Is there a difference as to what you prefer depending on type of message? Why?

24. ©2011 24www.id-book.com Evidence to support 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

25. ©2011 25www.id-book.com Criticism of Anthropomorphism Deceptive, make people feel anxious, inferior or stupid People tend not to like screen characters that wave their fingers at the user and say: – Now Chris, that’s not right. You can do better than that.Try again.” Many prefer the more impersonal: – “Incorrect. Try again.” Studies have shown that personalized feedback is considered to be less honest and makes users feel less responsible for their actions (e.g. Quintanar, 1982)

26. ©2011 26www.id-book.com Virtual characters Appearing on our screens in the form of: – Sales agents, characters in videogames, learning companions, wizards, pets, newsreaders Provides a persona that is welcoming, has personality and makes user feel involved with them

27. ©2011 27www.id-book.com Disadvantages Can lead people into false sense of belief, enticing them to confide personal secrets with chatterbots Annoying and frustrating As already noted, Clippy May not be trustworthy Virtual shop assistants?

28. ©2011 28www.id-book.com Rea the Realtor Rea showing user an apartment Human-like body Uses gesture, non-verbal communication (facial expressions, winks) while talking Sophisticated AI techniques used to enable this form of interaction Cassell, 2000, MIT

29. ©2011 29 Conversation with Rea Mike approaches screen and Rea turns to face him and says: – Hello. How can I help you? Mike: I’m looking to buy a place near MIT. – Rea nods, indicating she is following. Rea: I have a house to show you. (picture of a house appears on the screen) – Rea: it is in Somerville. Mike: Tell me about it. – Rea looks up and away while she plans what to say. – Rea: It’s big. Rea makes an expansive gesture with her hands. Mike brings his hands up as if to speak, so Rea does not continue, waiting for him to speak. Mike: Tell me more about it. Rea: Sure thing. It has a nice garden... Would you buy a house from her?

30. ©2011 30www.id-book.com Virtual agents What do virtual agents do? Do they elicit an emotional response in you? Do you trust them? What is style of interaction? What facial expression do they have? Are they believable, pushy, helpful? Would it be different if they were male? If so, how?

31. ©2011 31 What makes a virtual agent believable? Believability refers to extent to which users come to believe an agent’s intentions and personality Appearance is very important Are simple cartoon-like characters or more realistic characters, resembling the human form more believable? Behavior is very important How an agent moves, gestures and refers to objects on the screen Exaggeration of facial expressions and gestures to show underlying emotions (c.f. animation industry)

32. ©2011 Research on Anthropomorphic Agent Use This paper argues that anthropomorphic design is too limited in its human-ness and that is why users are disappointed http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/talks/HarrisLoewenCATT W2002.pdf This paper summarizes research in Agent use, concludes agents must be carefully used http://www.ruthcsmith.com/GWU%20Papers/Anthropomor phicAgents.pdf

33. ©2011 33 Summary Emotional interaction is concerned with how interactive systems make people respond in emotional ways Well-designed interfaces can elicit good feelings in users Expressive interfaces can provide reassuring feedback Badly designed interfaces make people angry and frustrated Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human qualities to objects An increasingly popular form of anthropomorphism is to create interface agents

34. ©2011 End Happy User

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36. ©2011 36www.id-book.com Summary Social mechanisms, like turn-taking, conventions, etc., enable us to collaborate and coordinate our activities Keeping aware of what others are doing and letting others know what you are doing are important aspects of collaborative working and socialising Many technologies systems have been built to support telepresence and co- presence

37. ©2011 References User Agents help with User Frustration http://www.inf.ufsc.br/~cybis/pg2002/User%20frustation.pdf Frustrating User Experiences and Computer Response http://www.inf.ufsc. br/~cybis/pg2002/User%20frustation.pdf