The Otherness of Non-Human Actors

Special aspects in HCI – HCI Master | Seminar SoSe 2020

Current design approaches in HCI often follow the same general direction, to design technology that literally “disappears” when being used. Users are supposed to feel like the product they are using becomes a part or extension of themselves (i.e., “Embodiment”). The term usability summarizes the objectives of such approaches. At the same time, however, the importance of intelligent and learning technologies is on the rise. Through their improving capabilities, these systems seem to gain more independence by being able to act proactively, learn and therefore change and improve their behavior, and perform tasks with less user involvement. In contrast to the common design rationale in HCI, these technologies are rather in “dialogue” with their users and can be perceived as a counterpart. This changes the relationship between humans and technology and calls for new approaches on how to design these new systems.

So far, a prevailing direction has been to design technology that mimics humans, both in form, but also in the interactions (i.e., anthropomorphism). We all know human-like robots and voice-assistants attempting to sound as human as possible. This fixation on anthropomorphism comes with many risks and disadvantages (e.g., reinforcing inappropriate gender stereotypes, influencing children in unknown ways), but also deprives these new machines of exciting potentials. When investing all energy into making a machine as human as possible, what is lost are the inherent qualities of machines. What are these special qualities and skills that are unique to machines? How can we design intelligent machines that are not trying to imitate humans, but draw their design rationale from the specific capabilities they have regarding their tasks?

In this course, we want to explore together what counterpart technologies are about. We want to investigate together, what this “otherness” of machines could look like – hands-on. After some theoretical background on the matter, the focus will be on coming up with concepts and projects, which can be realized in the shape of videos, artifacts, or other formats.