Testings | My Site 3

Prototype Testing

Testing of speed of robot and interactions

We integrated RC cars into a cardboard prototype of our robot and added a phone call feature, driving it around the school to gauge reactions.

We discovered that :

Fast movement made people cautious
The phone call feature suffered from lag (brief engagement)
Users showed a preference for tactile interaction, bending down to pat the robot.

Design survey

To understand the preferred design aesthetics and common expectations from chatbots among SUTD students, a survey was distributed. Participants was asked two main questions:

What kind of questions do you expect to be asked by a robot
Their preferred design among three mock-ups

Results:

Common questions were geared towards fun activities / having funny conversations
Most voted design was the cat design

Chatbot character

We aimed to elevate our robot from a wizard-of-oz prototype(phonecall) to a fully functional chatbot capable of answering user questions and engaging in meaningful conversation.

In order to ensure student engagement with our robot, we conducted trials with various distinct personalities using Chat GPT. Our goal was to cater to different user preferences by creating three unique personalities corresponding to three different accessories. (propella hat- playful, ).

03.5

Chatbot testing

We conducted tests to evaluate the effectiveness of our different personalities in engaging students for a duration of 5-10 minutes. We asked the help of our friends to interact with the chatbot using ChatGPT voice and provide feedback on their experience.

We discovered that :

Users view the chatbot as a source of entertainment rather than an informative tool.
Reported differing perceptions of time spent interacting

engaged in deep conversations felt that time passed 1-2 minutes longer
had fun with the robot perceived time to pass 1 minute quicker.

We concluded that the final prototype should prioritize enabling users to engage in enjoyable conversations.

Material Board

After noticing that people were bending down to interact with the robot, we decided to incorporate sensory play into our design. We created a material board featuring various textures for the robot's skin. We encouraged our classmates to feel each material and rank their top three preferences.