December 18, 2018

Ambient Mode Team: Ideating with Students at Garfield

Blog post written by Elin Björling, Shivani Shah, Wendy Xu and Tewelde Abraha

The Ambient Mode Team has spent this quarter researching how we can design an ambient mode for EMAR that is relaxing for teens nearby, but not engaging enough to be distracting. We wanted to create a potentially stress reducing experience with minimal interaction. We focused on teens responses to ambient mode content, and explored ideas about suitable locations for EMAR during ambient mode.

Ideation: From brainstorming to sketches

Before we went out to work with the teens at Garfield High School in Seattle, we spent time as a team researching through literature and exploring existing examples of robots providing relaxation, such as NAO robot doing Tai Chi. In addition, we investigated different types of images (nature, fractal art, animals) and music (nature sounds, relaxation music) that teens may find relaxing and calming with the ultimate aim to bring their stress levels down without requiring interaction with EMAR. As a team, we shared our ideas, some of which were quite wild like EMAR “breathing” or “vibrating” that could potentially be calming to the teens. We asked challenging questions like: Could EMAR be reading or doing work? How might that work? What would be “robot work” that is contextually appropriate?

Next, we explored the idea of “Take EMAR with you.” This idea stemmed from being able to capture EMAR’s relaxing ambient mode and “take it with you” digitally. We tested this using a QR code that would connect a teen’s phone to EMAR’s ambient image/sound interface. We also explored visual cues to express that EMAR was in ambient mode, and thus, not available for interaction. With the help of teens, we agreed on over-ear headphones to symbolize EMAR in ambient mode.

Finally, we explored  with teens an ideal location for EMAR assuming it’s going to be stationed within the school premises. We also wanted to explore how the transition would take place between EMAR’s interactive and ambient mode.

We were curious who would be responsible for this transition. We asked questions including:

• Would EMAR need a team of students for smooth functioning?
• Could these students be identified as EMAR stewards?

We then moved onto brainstorming ideas for an Ambient mode, mainly through sketching and storyboarding. Below are a few examples of our ideas:

 

Engaging students through participatory sessions exploring imagery and audio

In order to dive deeper, our team engaged with students at Garfield High School in participatory design sessions. We asked teens about their experience to  V4’s and used the rendered face and belly display, both shown on tablets. Our design sessions focused on:

• Rendered facial design
• Belly tablet display
• Audio
• Take it with you concept (via QR code)

Findings

1. Teens chose a calming, simple image for EMAR’s rendered face.
2. Teens strongly expressed an interest in the nature video (including water features) as the most relaxing image for EMAR’s belly screen. “We want nature that’s around here – cause then it will be more like us!”
3. Teens did not find the “Take it with you” concept necessary or interesting.
4. Teens affirmed that the headphones clearly indicated EMAR was not available for interaction.

Reflecting on findings from the field

As much as the teens enjoyed the design sessions exploring different imagery and audio options for EMAR’s ambient mode, they did not immediately see the value it would add to lowering their stress levels. Further, some students suggested that there was no appropriate location for EMAR in ambient mode at their school. Their libraries were crowded and busy as were hallways and lunch rooms. Therefore, our next steps will be exploring and testing ambient mode in other  school settings to explore the feasibility and see if there is a potential need for this function of EMAR.