This week we started our MediaLAB experience with a Makerssprint at the MakersLAB. The goal of this Makersprint was learning that creating a tangible product can be helpful to gain insights into a abstract problem.
We hoped to visualize two key problems:
- How does a representation of a bot trigger different emotional responses?
- Which tasks should be taken over by bots and which should be left to humans?
The visualization:
To visualize the problem, we started collecting unfiltered amounts of data about bot-human interaction. Then an ecology was formed, mapping the key relations and blackholes between our ideas. The ecology can be seen below:
The ecology revealed to us that there was a gap in our understanding of the correlation between humans and bots. Out of the many ideas we brainstormed to better diagnose the problem, two stood out:
- An interactive mapping of the emotional response towards certain representations of bots;
- An real-time interactive infographic tracking people’s sentiments towards the division of jobs between bots and humans.
Can I Help You?
Bot figures were created through laser-cut MDF. Representations varied from very abstract to very human-like. The board, also made out of MDF, functioned as a matrix for mapping different responses. Users place each figure on the matrix to where they think it fit.
Human / Bots
Paper was used to fold pyramid-like structures that represented humans and bots. Humans were yellow colored, while bots were grey colored. Users were presented with a set of six different team-work related tasks. The human pyramids were laid out on the floor in a hexagonal formation, in allusion to the scream logo. Vinyl-cut letters were used as labels. Whenever a task is deemed more efficiently done by bots, a human pyramid is replaced by a bot pyramid.
Event and reception:
The two products were presented in an open exhibitions. The interactive experiments facilitated discussion amongst different participants. Some instruction was needed to kick start the mapping process.
Surprisingly, the response to the first experiment was leaning towards robot-like representations. The basic figure of a robot was deemed more trust-worthy than other more human-like representation. This was particularly interesting since we thought that human-like characteristics are more familiar and able to work well in a team setting.
The response to the first experiment was more concrete than that of the second, where judgment was very subjective. However, the second experiment triggered a various arrays of discussion. For example, a point was raised about the suitability of bots to bridge different cultures in a workspace.