My slides from Interaction 12. Now with added notes!

1. Artificial emotional intelligence
Giles Colborne
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/54164255/ 1

2. I hope I’m not I’m a
bad person.
But sometimes I think
bad thoughts.
I want to
punch that website
in the face
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3. This guy acts out
those bad thoughts.
He’s a bit scary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtTUsOKjWyQ
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4. Something about
computers brings out
the worst in us. We
shout at our laptops
and throw our remote
controls on the
ground.
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5. In response, some
interaction designers
act like Nurse Ratched
in One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest. They see
emotion as the enemy.
But I think that
misunderstands the
importance of
emotions.
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6. AI pioneer Marvin
Minsky sees emotions as
‘ways to think’. Emotions
tune the machinery of
the brain.
Even a ‘negative’ emotion
like anger is useful. It
gives us the energy to
address a threat and
sends out social signals
that warn others we’d
better get our way.
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7. People without emotions
are less effective
thinkers. Antonio
Damasio describes one
patient, Elliot, with
above average IQ but
frontal lobe damage that
means his emotions are
impaired making him a
kind of Mr Spock.
When faced with a
‘rational’ task like
scheduling an
appointment, he
endlessly weighs and
compares choices. He
doesn’t feel boredom,
frustration or
embarrassment. He takes
for ever. Emotions are
vital to decision making.
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8. Why do we like to watch
horror movies? Because
they help us extend our
emotional range and
understand our
emotions.
Emotions are important
to people. They’re linked
to our strongest
memories and the most
meaningful events in our
lives.
What if we accept there
So we’re right to reject will be ups and downs in
the Nurse Ratched view the relationship between
that we should eliminate humans and computers?
emotion.
What if we try to give our
designs the emotional
intelligence to ride those
waves?
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9. Marvin Minsky wants to
create artificial
emotional intelligence by
building an artificial
brain. Awesome!
But that’s a few decades
away. Meanwhile, I have
a website to design.
So are there ways I can
cheat?
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10. Back to this guy. The
word that describes him
is ‘postal’.
So maybe we can learn
how to deal with this
situation by talking to
some experts.
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11. These folks train
negotiators to deal with
crisis situations. Maybe
FBI
they can help us.
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12. Behavioural Change Stairway Model
They use this model to get through
hostage negotiations. It recognises
that if you want to get to ‘behaviour behaviour
change’ you need to start with
‘listening’ and ‘empathy’.
change
influence
rapport
empathy
active
listening
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13. Clearly his computer isn’t
listening to him.
When interfaces don’t
listen we get angry.
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14. It looks like you’re
giving a presentation
Get help with
giving the
presentation
Just give the
presentation
without help.
Don’t show this tip
Clippy has all the elements that we’re
supposed to include in emotional design. He’s
again
informal yet direct. He’s cute looking.
I’ve always thought there was a lot of good
thinking behind him. But people hated him.
Why? Because he’s so bad at listening.
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15. My hero Clifford Nass
redesigned Clippy very
simply to listen and
empathise.
When Clippy offered
advice, he would ask ‘was
that useful?’. If people
said ‘no’ Clippy would say
‘that really ticks me off.
Let’s tell the folks at
Microsoft I need to be
reprogrammed.’ and
Clippy would encourage
them to write in and vent
their dissatisfaction.
And it worked: users
Clifford Nass
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16. When you watch this
video, you notice that
there are lots of signs
that things are going
wrong. Our guy begins by
giving the screen a hard
stare. Then he seems to
swear. He slaps the
keyboard. And then he
really starts to lose it.
A more sophisticated
computer might have
picked up on those
warning signs and saved
itself a beating.
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17. In Affective Computing,
Rosalind Pickard suggests
that computers could use
input from many sensors
(facial recognition, audio
input and so on) and
pattern matching to
detect users’ emotions.
She recognises this is
complex (even people
occasionally misread
emotions). We’re a few
years away from this.
But Clifford Nass shows
us that listening can be as
simple as saying ‘how am
I doing?’.
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18. The FBI knows there’s a right way to
empathise. Don’t say ‘I know how you
feel’. It’s too easy for other person to say
‘Oh no you don’t’.
Wrong: Instead, show you care and create
opportunities for dialogue. You don’t need
sophisticated technology for this. In fact,
‘I know how you feel’ it’s been around since the 1960s.
Right:
‘I’ve never been in your situation
before, but I imagine you must be
feeling very depressed and lonely’
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19. Eliza is a computer ‘therapist’ that asks
users how they feel and uses pattern
matching to respond and draw them out.
ELIZA
It’s crude, but good enough to pass a basic
Turing test - some people think Eliza’s
answers come from a real person.
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20. FBI negotiators know they
need to project the right
Be positive, upbeat personality.
Reassure hostage-taker that Now imagine if you hooked
up Eliza’s pattern matching
to an online database and
things will work out well gave it an upbeat
personality with a bit of
edge to it.
Be credible That sounds familiar...
Show you understand their
reasons but don’t be too eager
to please
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21. Siri is an evolution of Eliza’s
pattern matching approach
but with better jokes.
That creates a personality
and a basis for empathy.
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22. Clifford Nass ran an
experiment where he gave
participants blue wrist bands
and asked them to complete
tasks a computer.
For half the participants he
put ablue border on the
computer screen and said
‘you and the computer arethe
blue team’. For the other half,
he gave the computer a green
borderand said ‘you’re the
blue guy working on the
green computer’.
When the colours matched,
people tried harder and
thought the computer was
smarter.
Building rapport doesn’t
require complex technology.
Just good psychology.
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23. Excellent. We’re half way up
the FBI’s behavioural
change model and we’ve not
had to build an artificial
brain.
Listen, empathise, build rapport
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24. The FBI has a lot to tell us
about how to handle
emotions that arise from
situation.
But sometimes conflict
arises from personality
differences.
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25. For managing relationships,
this book was
recommended to me.
I love it because it centres
on a simple model. (Which
we can use when we’re
designing interactions.)
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26. You have to understand
Task focus
people’s disposition
(passive - aggressive) and
motivation (task -
relationship).
Passive Aggressive
Relationship focus
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27. In the centre is the ‘normal zone’. At the
Task focus
edges of the graph are extreme types
who can be difficult to get along with.
Whiner Tank
Passive Aggressive
Yes person Think they know it all
Relationship focus
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28. What I find normal and acceptable will
Task focus
be different from what you find normal
and acceptable.
Everyone is someone’s difficult person.
Whiner Tank
We need to tune our behaviour and
responses to get the best out of those
conflicts.
Passive Aggressive
Yes person Think they know it all
Relationship focus
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29. And the secret to that is understanding
Task focus
the intention that drives those
personality types.
Get it right Get it done
Passive Aggressive
Get along Get appreciated
Relationship focus
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30. Maja Mataric has built socially assistive
robots that coach stroke victims
through their physiotherapy.
She tried tuning the coaching to each
patient’s personality. The robots would
tell extroverts ‘Come on, try harder’.
But introverts would be told ‘I know it’s
hard, but it’s for your own good’.
And... it worked! Patients preferred the
robots that were tuned to their
personality and tried harder for them.
Maja Mataric
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31. If you need to be appreciated, you’ll like
the fact that TripAdvisor tells you when
people have read your reviews.
If you’re a ‘get it done’ kind of person,
you might feel this was unnecessary and
spammy.
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32. And if you’re the kind of person
who needs to get along, you’d
appreciate this error message that
says ‘It’s my fault’. (Personally, I
find it rather craven.)
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33. You don’t need to give your users a
personality test before they start. You
could learn their personality in the
same way that Pandora learns your
taste in music.
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34. And you might even be able to pick
up information about users’
personality from specialist services.
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35. Task focus So instead of designing fixed
patterns of behaviour, maybe we
should design flexible patterns
that adjust to users’ disposition.
Get it right Get it done
Passive Aggressive
Get along Get appreciated
Relationship focus
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36. Behavioural Change Stairway Model
And we’ve seen how a model
like this can help us think about behaviour
listening, empathising and
building rapport, rather than change
rushing towards outcomes. influence
rapport
empathy
active
listening
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37. A lot of the discussion of emotional
design today centres around ideas of
‘brand’. And on old-fashioned, static,
monolithic brands.
But I hope I’ve shown you that we can do
much more.
We can create a flow of emotions and
more dynamic, adaptable personalities
for our designs.
We’re designing responsive web layouts,
why not responsive interaction rules?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coca_Cola_ad_ca._1943_IMG_3744.JPG 37

38. If we put some emotional intelligence into the
interactions we design, we can disarm conflict,
create richer, more memorable experiences,
and improve performance for our users.
The future may bring us better ways of reading
emotions.
But the tools we need to get started are
already in our hands.
Let’s use them.
http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/F4U/KUUR/FGVL6H7X/F4UKUURFGVL6H7X.jpg 38

39. What are emotions and how Still the go-to text on using emotions Applying the triune brain model How law enforcement agencies
could we create them in a in computing. to the problem of creating negotiate in highly charged,
machine? emotionally resonant designs. criminal situations.
A guide to recognising A refutation of the idea that Original research into how people Applying theories of story to
emotionally charged relationships emotions have no place in higher make ‘gut’ decisions. interaction design
and to getting the best from thought.
them.
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