Archives of Design Research 

Abstract: This article was published in Archives of Design Research on 31 May 2017 available open access at https://doi.org/10.15187/adr.2017.05.30.2.5

Abstract: Background Robot’s appearance types could be classified into human-oriented and product-oriented. Human-oriented robot appearance resembles human’s appearance whereas product-oriented robot appearance maximizes the robot’s dedicated functions. In this study, we compared the two robot appearance types and investigated the impact of the two robot appearance types on perceived social presence, sociability, and service evaluation of a robot. Methods We excuted a 2 (robot appearance types: human-oriented vs. product-oriented) within-participants experiment design (N =24). Results Participants felt more social presence to a human-oriented robot than a product-oriented robot. Moreover, they perceived a human-oriented robot as more sociable than a product-oriented robot. On the other hand, participants were more satisfied with the service provided by a product-oriented robot than a human-oriented robot. Conclusions We investigated the effect of the robot appearance types on robot’s perceived social presence, sociability and service evaluation. Human-oriented robot appearance was effective on social interaction between a person and a robot while product-oriented robot appearance was effective on service satisfaction. Implications for design of robots in emotion-oriented situation and task-oriented situation are discussed.

Abstract: Background Card-based design tools have gained popularity as a means to communicate research insights and to make them usable in a design process. There are various examples of card tools and guidelines for developing a card set itself, yet there has been little research into how the usage of card tools can be systematically formulated. Although the existing literature on card tools often presents certain usages, it rarely explicates how the usage was structured, and provides few references to the underlying decisions. Methods Through a case study of the positive emotional granularity cards, this paper presents a bottom-up approach in which designers’ needs and their own techniques to use the cards are reflected in formulating new card usage guidelines. Three design workshops were conducted, each of which explored how designers made use of the cards in the three design activities respectively: (1) assimilating nuances of positive emotions; (2) specifying emotional intentions; and (3) generating product ideas. In a creative session with design researchers, the workshop findings were translated into usage guidelines. Results There were individual differences in designers’ ability to make use of the PEG cards. At one end of the spectrum was the designer who immediately started to play and explore the cards, creating his or her own usage rules. At the other end of the spectrum was the designer who needed instructions to get started. Most designers explored usage, but at the same time they felt insecure about getting value without having some guidance. The workshops allowed us to spot the benefits and drawbacks of the techniques the designers used, and to identify their needs in using the PEG cards. The creative session resulted in the PEG card guidelines that assist and inspire designers in the three design activities. Conclusions Provisional usage guidelines can considerably contribute to a card tool’s usefulness, even if the card usage is envisioned to be open-ended and versatile. The bottom-up approach proved valuable to generate new insights into how a card set can best be used and how designers can be guided when using the card set.

Abstract: Background Concern with the social dimension emerges when design is seen as an interactive process beyond activities to result in products. Actually, design is socio-technical process: designers use and result technical objects when they interact with others. The term ‘socio-technical’ is derived from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to describe the mutual relations between human and technical objects. This study was conducted to understand design in a socio-technical perspective by reflecting a design work of ‘creative alley’ in Kampung Kreatif as project case.