Mediating Urban Social Encounters – Co-Design of Robotic Street Furniture with Adolescents

Paper Title

Mediating Urban Social Encounters – Co-Design of Robotic Street Furniture with Adolescents

Publication Info

• Topic area: The design and role of robotic street furniture in facilitating adolescent social interaction in public spaces.
• Keywords: Robotic street furniture, adolescents, public spaces, co-design, social interaction, theater-based methods, human-robot interaction, speculative design, participatory design, urban technology.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Adolescents face increasing challenges in engaging in spontaneous social interactions in public spaces due to digital isolation and limited influence over urban design. Existing robotic systems in public spaces are often functional rather than social, and little is known about how robots could mediate human-human interactions, particularly for adolescents.
• Significance: Addressing adolescent social disconnection is critical for fostering well-being, social resilience, and democratic participation. Public spaces offer unique opportunities for serendipitous encounters, which are particularly valuable for this age group.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research in HCI and HRI has explored social robots in controlled or semi-public environments but has largely overlooked adolescents and the socio-emotional dimensions of public spaces. Robots’ unique qualities, such as persistence and non-judgment, suggest potential for mediating human-human interactions, but this remains underexplored, particularly from adolescents’ perspectives.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A theater-based co-design process involving adolescents to envision and enact speculative robotic street furniture concepts that facilitate social interaction in public spaces.
• Novelty:
  1. Development of ten speculative robotic street furniture concepts co-designed with adolescents.
  2. Identification of robotic roles, strengths, and weaknesses relevant to social mediation.
  3. Derivation of eight design suggestions for robotic furniture to support human-human interaction.
  4. Introduction of a participatory, theater-based method for exploring human-robot interaction in public spaces.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  1. Exploratory phase: Focus groups and interviews to understand adolescents’ experiences in public spaces.
  2. Translational phase: Development of prompts linking psychological needs to robotic capabilities.
  3. Enactment phase: Theater-based role-play where adolescents embodied robots and humans to co-create interaction scenarios.
  4. Analysis: Thematic analysis of video recordings, robot profiles, and reflections to identify design insights.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Adolescents envisioned robots taking on roles such as icebreaker, wingman, therapist, and game master.
  • Robots were valued for traits like persistence, shamelessness, impartiality, and infinite patience, but these traits were context-dependent and could also be perceived as weaknesses.
  • Ten robotic concepts were developed, including roaming benches, reflective seating blocks, and complimenting bollards.
• Advantage over baselines: The study highlights robots’ potential to complement rather than replace human interaction, leveraging their unique strengths (e.g., non-judgment, emotional neutrality) to address social barriers.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Conducted with 14 adolescents (ages 17–20) in a theater-based co-design workshop.
  • Outputs included 10 robot profiles, video enactments, and thematic reflections.
  • Eight design suggestions were derived, grouped into four categories: facilitating contact, navigating social tensions, enabling reflection, and mediating communication.
• Limitations and future work:
  • The study was limited to speculative scenarios and did not test robots in real public spaces or over extended periods.
  • Focused on adolescents; future work could explore intergenerational perspectives or include adults.
  • The method may have implicitly promoted robotic solutions, necessitating more critical engagement in future iterations.

Summary

This study explores how robotic street furniture could facilitate adolescent social interaction in public spaces. Through a theater-based co-design process, 14 adolescents developed ten speculative robot concepts, such as roaming benches and reflective seating blocks, which revealed robots’ potential roles, strengths, and weaknesses in mediating human-human encounters. Eight design suggestions were derived, emphasizing subtle social affordances, orchestrated coincidences, and nonverbal communication. While the findings highlight opportunities for robots to complement human interaction, they also underscore ethical concerns about transparency, control, and unintended social consequences. Future work should examine real-world deployments and engage broader demographic groups.