Haru in the Care Network: Stakeholder Perspectives on Privacy with Social Robots in PediatricsSocial robots are beginning to be introduced as technologies to support the collective networks supporting pediatric treatment, but few studies on children's perceptions of privacy with robots in hospitals. Through a mixed-method approach, we introduced hypothetical vignettes and engaged in discussion with 15 youth who are either receiving cancer treatments or are in remission (ages 6-25), 11 of their parents, and 5 out of 8 of their clinical staff to learn how stakeholders in pediatric oncology discuss privacy concerns with child-robot interactions. Our thematic analysis imparts how stakeholders perceive robots as social, non-authoritative extensions of the hospital's care network. As 1) mediators of social interaction among various stakeholders, 2) companions for children and 3) informational tools for clinicians when consent is given by the family, social robots can maximize their social utility within care systems while critically engaging with the comfort and privacy preferences of stakeholders. We emphasize how assistive technologies in pediatrics should be co-designed within communities for identifying appropriate roles and returning agency to stakeholders as they navigate the blurry boundaries of privacy in healthcare.2025LLLeigh M Levinson et al.Perspectives on Data PrivacyCSCW
Haru in the Kitchen: Investigating Family Members’ Perceptions Toward a Social Robot Mediator of Food ExperiencesWhen families live together, they often share meals, and food plays a central part in their everyday routines and rituals. When this changes and families are separated by distance, they may transition these practices to technology-mediated ones. Social robots have shown effectiveness in facilitating human-to-human interactions in various communication contexts. In this study, we explore the possibility of distant families interacting through a social robot mediator in the kitchen. We conducted 9 scenario-based interviews using the Haru social robot as a probe. Our findings highlight opportunities for food-related mediation and participants’ hesitations and concerns. We discuss how future research can address these issues, particularly in terms of how a social robot can be positioned in the family and food space, how the robot can be customized for the family’s values, and how the robot can serve as a mediator during opportune contexts (e.g., playfulness) and moments (e.g., culturally synchronous practices).2025APAswati Panicker et al.Social Robot InteractionFood Culture & Food InteractionDIS
Research as Care: A reflection on incorporating the ethics of care in design research with people living with dementiaWhen computing researchers design technologies for vulnerable populations and engage with them over extended periods, researchers may incorporate "care"—deliberate actions to build and maintain relationships with participants—to improve engagement and deepen their understanding of situated perspectives. However, when researchers choose to take actions involving care, these efforts are rarely made explicit. Reflecting on our three-year project of designing and testing a social robot with 31 participants living with dementia, we realized the benefit of intentional reflection on the ethics and practice of care during the research process. We offer "research as care" guidelines into computing design research: 1) viewing participants as individuals, 2) being intentional in the ongoing and dynamic engagement, 3) acknowledging the reciprocity inherent in care, 4) reporting care practices transparently, 5) tailoring care to the specific context, and 6) making an informed choice to incorporate care. By incorporating research as care, computing design researchers can provide a more productive experience for participants and enhance their designs' overall quality and validity.2025LHLong-Jing Hsu et al.Elderly Care & Dementia SupportSocial Robot InteractionParticipatory DesignDIS
Bittersweet Snapshots of Life: Designing to Address Complex Emotions in a Reminiscence Interaction between Older Adults and a RobotHuman-Computer Interaction and Human-Robot Interaction researchers have developed various reminiscence technologies for older adults, but the focus of such work has mostly been on making the technology usable and improving older adults' memory recall. Our study of a robot facilitating reminiscence through conversations about personal photographs with 20 older adults uncovered a less discussed aspect of such interactions: reminiscence can evoke both \textit{bitter} and \textit{sweet} emotions. Without adequate emotional sensitivity, the robot sometimes responded inappropriately, requiring researchers to intervene in the interaction to address misunderstandings. To understand how to better address these challenges, we conducted a follow-up co-design workshop with 7 older adults to explore how the robot could better support managing bittersweet emotions. Through reflexive thematic analysis of the two studies, this paper identifies factors that trigger bittersweet emotions during reminiscence with a robot and provides strategies for technology to manage these emotions during such interactions. This research highlights the importance of addressing emotional experiences in the design of reminiscence technology. It also raises ethical concerns about the emotional vulnerability of deploying one-on-one AI technologies for older adults.2025LHLong-Jing Hsu et al.Indiana University Bloomington, InformaticsEV Charging & Eco-Driving InterfacesCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Social Robot InteractionCHI
Designing with Dynamics: Reflections on Co-design Workshops Between People Living with Dementia and Their Care PartnersHuman-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers focusing on informal care partners and people living with dementia often create personas, incorporating expectations about the pair's relationship dynamics to guide their research and design outcome. Similarly, in our two iterations of co-design workshops aimed at designing a robot to enhance these relationships, we started with expectation that care partners would primarily lead the relationship. This assumption guided the design of the co-design workshops, which included diary studies followed by co-design sessions with eight dyads. However, our results from reflexive thematic analysis challenge the initial view that relationship dynamics follow a single persona or outcome. Instead, the diversity in relationship dynamics led to multiple design outcomes, highlighting the need for HCI researchers to consider care dynamics when designing and conducting research studies for care partnerships. Researchers can structure and create iterative co-design workshops to accommodate these dynamics by incorporating ongoing reflection on the dyad’s relationship dynamics and the researchers’ influence throughout all co-design stages. This approach enhances researchers' ability to create more thoughtful and effective relationship technology.2025LHLong-Jing Hsu et al.Indiana University Bloomington, InformaticsElderly Care & Dementia SupportAging-in-Place Assistance SystemsEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
"Give it Time": Longitudinal Panels Scaffold Older Adults' Learning and Robot Co-DesignParticipatory robot design projects with older adults often use multiple sessions to encourage design feedback and active participation from users. These projects have, however, not analyzed the learning outcomes for older adults across co-design sessions and how they support constructive design feedback and meaningful participation. To bridge this gap, we examined the learning outcomes within a "longitudinal panel." This panel comprised seven co-design sessions with 11 older adults of varying cognitive abilities over six months, aimed at designing a robot to guide a photograph-based conversational activity. Using Nelson and Stolterman's framework of the hierarchy of design-learning, we demonstrate how older adult panelists achieved multiple design-learning outcomes -- capacity, confidence, capability, competence, courage, and connection -- which allowed them to provide actionable design suggestions. We provide guidelines for conducting longitudinal panels that can enhance user design-learning and participation in robot design.2024LHLong-Jing Hsu et al.Domestic RobotsParticipatory DesignHRI
Snitches Get Unplugged: Adolescents' privacy concerns about robots in the home are relationally situatedThough teens are a population with growing agency and use of smart technologies, their concerns surrounding privacy with AI and robots are under-represented in research. Using focus group discussions and a mixed methods analysis, we present findings about teens’ comfort levels with robotic information collection and sharing during three hypothetical scenarios involving a child interacting with a robot in the home. We find participant concerns align with an access-based definition of privacy which prioritizes being in control of their information and of when the robot behaves autonomously. Responses also indicate that teens conceptualize Haru not just as an intelligent device, but also as a social entity. Their shifts in comfort and discussions reflect an engagement in social relationship management with robots in the home in cases where the robot mediates a user’s responsibilities and relationships with others.2024LLLeigh M Levinson et al.Smart Home Privacy & SecuritySocial Robot InteractionHRI
"An Emotional Support Animal, Without the Animal": Design Guidelines for a Social Robot to Address Symptoms of DepressionSocially assistive robots offer an opportunity for utilizing therapeutic technologies within the context of depression and its symptoms. Through two workshop methodologies with individuals living with depression, as well as workshops with clinicians, design guidelines for developing a more personalized robot are presented. Focusing on the design of Therabot™, a customizable robot, individuals living with depression and co-morbidities, as well as clinicians, discussed various aspects of the robots design, sensors, behaviors, and a robot connected app. While similarities between the workshops occurred, such as a soft textured exterior, and natural colors and sounds, certain differences between the groups were present. Such as the robot being able to call for aid were present from clinicians, or who those with depression were comfortable sharing their data collected by the robot with.2024SCSawyer Collins et al.Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesSocial Robot InteractionHRI
Constructing a Social Life with Robots, From Design Patterns to Interaction Ritual ChainsRobot designers commonly conceptualize robot sociality as a collection of features and capabilities. In contrast, sociologists define sociality as continuously constructed in and through situated interactions among people. Based on the latter perspective, we trace how robots are incorporated by robot companies and their staff and by robot owners into interaction ritual chains across diverse contexts: homes, cafes, robot stores, user organized meetups, and company events for robot users. Our empirical findings from ethnographic field work in Japan relating to three robots – aibo, RoboHon, and LOVOT – show how companies create positive interactions between people and robots through robot design patterns, by modeling successful interactions in person and online, and by bringing owners together in events that establish feelings of belonging and common values of acceptance of social robots as artifacts to live with and nurture. Owners, for their part, develop daily interaction rituals that include robots in their habits and activities and make interpersonal connections around robots in public meetups and events. Companies and owners construct the notion of robots as social agents to live with through interconnected moments of situated interaction, related emotional responses, and meaning-making among people as they interact with robots and each other over time and in different contexts. Our work suggests that social robot design therefore needs to consider this broader framing of sociality and create affordances for the establishment of interaction ritual chains more explicitly.2024WKWaki Kamino et al.Social Robot InteractionTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignHRI
Co-designing Social Robots with People Living with Dementia: Fostering Identity, Connectedness, Security, and AutonomyConventional co-design methods, such as storyboarding and focus groups, are not always appropriate for people living with dementia (PLwD). In pilot robot co-design workshops in a local memory care facility, we noticed PLwD struggled to understand, express themselves, fully participate, and benefit from the experience. After reflecting on challenges with the facility's director of program development and education, we redesigned the workshops prioritizing elements of the Eden Alternative's well-being for PLwD: identity, connectedness, security, and autonomy. We delivered these new workshops over five weeks with 12 PLwD participants. Analysis of resulting video recordings and transcripts shows the new activities allowed participants to see themselves as having knowledge relevant to social robot design; to relate to each other, the robot, and the researchers; to feel comfortable; and to actively contribute to and offer valuable insights for robot design. Participants reported feeling meaning, growth, and joy during the workshops.2023LHLong-Jing Hsu et al.Social Robot InteractionEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsParticipatory DesignDIS
Coffee, Tea, Robots? The Performative Staging of Service Robots in 'Robot Cafes' in JapanWe present an ethnographic observational study of six robot cafes in Japan to understand how service robots are performatively staged and presented to the public. We particularly attend to the diverse ways in which the physical setting and ambience of the cafes, the verbal characterization of and staff behaviors toward robots, explicit and implicit instructions on appropriate interactions with robots, and handling of robot malfunctions constitute robots as socially acceptable and useful in daily life. Such scaffolding enables robots to provide material and affective services to cafe visitors, and visitors to explore various interaction possibilities with robots. Our work contributes to the critical study of the ongoing construction of "robot cultures" in Japan, and calls attention to public interactions with robots and the importance of contextual staging beyond individual robot features in human-robot interaction design.2023WKWaki Kamino et al.Social Platform Design & User BehaviorSocial Robot InteractionHRI
A Picture Might Be Worth a Thousand Words, But It's Not Always Enough to Evaluate RobotsEvaluation of robots commonly occurs using various stimuli, including photos, videos, and live interaction. However, a better understanding of how and why chosen stimuli affect perceptions, and how evaluations using lower fidelity media (e.g. photos) compare to evaluations using higher context stimuli (e.g., videos), is needed. Through a survey of 599 M-Turk participants, we compare robot evaluations based on exposure to three types of media — photos, GIFs, and promotional videos. We analyze nine perception and behavioral intention measures of three home robots with varying levels of anthropomorphism (Olly, Jibo, and Liku): overall liking, liking of appearance, liking of intended use, eeriness, human-likeness, performance expectations, privacy concerns, information seeking intention, and purchase intention. We find that photos consistently differ from ratings of videos for all measures, except for liking of robots’ intended use. Use of GIFs led to measurements in line with videos for seven of the nine measurements, due to the importance of movement in perceptual assessments and character judgments (e.g., friendly, creepy). Except for the most human-like robot, neither photos nor GIFs captured human-likeness to a similar degree as videos, due to the importance of speech in assessments. Though GIFs captured informational and overall privacy concerns well, they did not adequately capture physical privacy concerns.2023NRNatasha Randall et al.Agent Personality & AnthropomorphismSocial Robot InteractionHRI
A Three-Site Reproduction of the Joint Simon Effect with the NAO RobotThe generalizability of empirical research depends on the reproduction of findings across settings and populations. Consequently, generalizations demand resources beyond that which is typically available to any one laboratory. With collective interest in the joint Simon effect (JSE) – a phenomenon that suggests people work more effectively with humanlike (as opposed to mechanomorphic) robots – we pursued a multi-institutional research cooperation between robotics researchers, social scientists, and software engineers. To evaluate the robustness of the JSE in dyadic human-robot interactions, we constructed an experimental infrastructure for exact, lab-independent reproduction of robot behavior. Deployment of our infrastructure across three institutions with distinct research orientations (well-resourced versus resource-constrained) provides initial demonstration of the success of our approach and the degree to which it can alleviate technical barriers to HRI reproducibility. Moreover, with the three deployments situated in culturally distinct contexts (Germany, the U.S. Midwest, and the Mexico-U.S. Border), observation of a JSE at each site provides evidence its generalizability across settings and populations.2020MSMegan Strait et al.Social Robot InteractionHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)HRI