How interface agents affect interaction between humans and computers
Open accessAbstract
For many years, the HCI community has harbored a vision of interacting with intelligent, embodied computer agents. However, the reality of this vision remains elusive. From an interaction design perspective, little is known about how to specifically design an embodied agent to support the task it will perform and the social interactions that will result. This paper presents design research that explores the relationship between the visual features of embodied agents and the tasks they perform, and the social attributions that result. Our results show a clear link between agent task and agent form and reveals that people often prefer agents who conform to gender stereotypes associated with tasks. Based on the results of this work, we provide a set of emerging design considerations to help guide interaction designers in creating the visual form of embodied agents.
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Other research on users' perceptions of static agent images at first glance shows that the agent's gender and role affect the user's perception of the agent.
“Other research focused on users’ perceptions of static agent images at first glance [17-19], showing that the agent’s gender and role affect the user’s perception of the agent.”
From Embodied Conversational Agent Appearance for Health Assessment of Older Adults: Explorative Study (2020) · cites this paper as [17]
Agent age and gender remain important at first glance to lower the threshold to interact with the agent.
“but remain important at first glance to lower the threshold to interact with the agent.”
From Embodied Conversational Agent Appearance for Health Assessment of Older Adults: Explorative Study (2020) · cites this paper as [17]
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Sorted by citations
Chaves, A. P., & Gerosa, M. A. (2021) · International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2020.1841438 · Cited by 572 · see citing works
Design Features of Embodied Conversational Agents in eHealth: a Literature Review
ter Stal, S., Kramer, L. L., Tabak, M., op den Akker, H., & Hermens, H. (2020) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2020.102409 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Embodied Conversational Agent Appearance for Health Assessment of Older Adults: Explorative Study
ter Stal, S., Broekhuis, M., van Velsen, L., Hermens, H., & Tabak, M. (2020) · JMIR Human Factors · doi:10.2196/19987 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“Other research focused on users’ perceptions of static agent images at first glance [17-19], showing that the agent’s gender and role affect the user’s perception of the agent.”
Background
- Authors
- Forlizzi, J., Zimmerman, J., Mancuso, V., & Kwak, S.
- Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- School of Information Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Designing pleasurable products and interfaces
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2007-08-22
- Pages
- 209-221
- OpenAlex
- W2028773068
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.45
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces (DPPI) (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- KiltHub Repository
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Keywords
- embodied agents, interface agents, human-computer interaction, social attribution, gender stereotypes, interaction design
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