User Experience and Social Interaction with Robots

Abstract

Robots are an emerging area in human-computer interaction. Although different types of robots have been around for automation and maintenance tasks, they are now emerging more and more towards use cases with social interaction, bringing new opportunities and challenges for the designers. Robots are being integrated into different work and service domains, including office work, healthcare and education. When designing interactive technologies, we need to take into account different user groups, use contexts, and even cultural sensitivities to achieve good user experiences. With robots, also tangible interaction, the form factor, and physical appearance are part of the interactive system design. This workshop addresses interaction with robots, focusing especially on the user experience and social interaction side of it. The workshop invites researchers and practitioners to present their work, or position papers, on the topic and to discuss about related case studies, applications, research methods, and experiences.