Development of a comprehensive design guideline to evaluate the user experiences of meal-assistance robots considering human-machine social interactions

Abstract

Meal-assistance robots (MARs) help feed meals to users with disabilities or who need help consuming their meals. Although such MARs have been introduced in various fields, guidelines for evaluating MARs are limited. This study aims to develop comprehensive guidelines to assess the user experience (UX) of MAR designs considering its social interaction characteristics between humans and robots. Participants from three groups (patients, doctors, and caregivers) with different perspectives on MARs were recruited and a focus group interview was conducted to collect their UXs with MARs. The three groups showed different UXs with MARs in user interface design, robot arm motion, and safety and mobility. In addition, based on the literature review, eight UX features (usability, emotion, value, naturalness, assistance, acceptance, personality, and culture) are proposed to evaluate MAR interfaces. The proposed comprehensive design guideline will be particularly useful in evaluating and designing the UX of MARs.


Meal-assistance robots (MARs) help feed meals to users with disabilities or who need help consuming their meals. Although such MARs have been introduced in various fields, guidelines for evaluating MARs are limited. This study aims to develop comprehensive guidelines to assess the user experience (UX) of MAR designs considering its social interaction characteristics between humans and robots. Participants from three groups (patients, doctors, and caregivers) with different perspectives on MARs were recruited and a focus group interview was conducted to collect their UXs with MARs. The three groups showed different UXs with MARs in user interface design, robot arm motion, and safety and mobility. In addition, based on the literature review, eight UX features (usability, emotion, value, naturalness, assistance, acceptance, personality, and culture) are proposed to evaluate MAR interfaces. The proposed comprehensive design guideline will be particularly useful in evaluating and designing the UX of MARs.

Description

Keywords

design, human-machine social interactions, user experience, robots, design, human-machine social interactions, user experience, robots

Sponsorship

This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (or Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program (20005096, Development of intelligent meal assistant robot with easy installation for the elderly and disabled) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea). Also, this work was supported by Incheon National University Research Grant in 2020 (Grant No.: 20200395).
This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (or Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program (20005096, Development of intelligent meal assistant robot with easy installation for the elderly and disabled) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea). Also, this work was supported by Incheon National University Research Grant in 2020 (Grant No.: 20200395).

Rights:

Attribution 4.0 International, Attribution 4.0 International

Citation

Kim, H.K., Jeong, H., Park, J., Park, J., Kim, W.S., Kim, N., Park, S. and Paik, N.J., 2022. Development of a Comprehensive Design Guideline to Evaluate the User Experiences of Meal-Assistance Robots considering Human-Machine Social Interactions. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, pp.1-14.
Kim, H.K., Jeong, H., Park, J., Park, J., Kim, W.S., Kim, N., Park, S. and Paik, N.J., 2022. Development of a Comprehensive Design Guideline to Evaluate the User Experiences of Meal-Assistance Robots considering Human-Machine Social Interactions. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, pp.1-14.