In this talk I will explore an emerging perspective in Interaction Design that looks at elements of common social exchanges as the foundation for creating products that operate as social entities.
While we are familiar with the complex and very literal dialog-based interactions that take place through conversational agents such as Siri and Alexa, even very simple products have conversations with us in a variety of abstract ways. A well-timed glowing indicator, for example, can make people feel welcomed and acknowledged, and a responsive and well-tuned knob can make people feel sure and powerful. We are accustomed to considering the minimal and efficient interactions that need to take place in order to exchange information between product and person, but have a wide open palette to explore some of the more subtle social cues that can reinforce effective communication as well as build trust and emotional bonds.
This talk will focus on a spectrum of case studies beginning with my work in crafting robot forms for research labs and specialized clients such as Diligent Robotics, a startup that is creating autonomous agents as hospital assistants. It will continue to look at methodologies and experiments from my studio practice, design lab and student work to explore the vast range of social exchanges that can take place with and through our everyday objects.
By examining our everyday interactions through a social lens, I’ll discuss how the the sociology of products can help us create products that perform better than their less social counterparts.
