Human-Computer Interaction Research Paper

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Task: Impossible - Frustration and the Interface Agent Emily Sappington Parsons the New School for Design Eugene Lang the New School for Liberal Arts 66 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 emilysappington@gmail.com 860-371-7003 Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne Dr. Scott G. Pobiner Department of Psychology School of Design Strategies Eugene Lang the New School for Liberal Arts Parsons the New School for Design 80 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 66 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 KINSBOUM@newschool.edu PobinerS@newschool.edu ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the implementation of the classic psychological methodology of deception; executed in the form of an impossible computer task which measures user’s persistence despite inevitable frustration. Unlike many other studies on the topic of interface agents, persistence, instead of performance, is the optimal research finding for this experiment. In this study a text-only computer interface agent proved ideal for persistence over time and in the number of clicks participants made in attempting to solve the given impossible task. Additional postexperiment surveys reveal a preference towards trusting a female interface agent and feelings of frustration towards male interface agents. Findings on users’ responses to an impossible task in both written and physical input manifestations are discussed in terms of user experience.

People commonly have frustrating experiences while using computers. On many occasions patience and persistence are necessary to reduce frustration and resolve problems. Computer applications and websites may feature bugs or glitches that make completing a seemingly simple task more difficult. Such problems may not necessitate much technological understanding, but rather might require users to have patience when attempting to complete a given task, and users may need persistence to complete the task several times.

Author Keywords

User experience, frustration, interface, agent, gender, impossible task, deception, trust ACM Classification Keywords

H.1.2 [User/Machine Systems]: Human Factors, Psychology; G.3 [Probability and Statistics]: Experimental Design; J.4 [Social and Behavioral Sciences]: Psychology; H.1.2 [User/Machine Systems]: Software Psychology

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As Picard and Klein found [2], computers have the potential to activate certain emotional states within users, and activating such states is exactly the purpose of this experiment. While research on the usefulness of interface agents often varies from case to case, studies have found that animated interface agents can be distracting and/or irritating [5]. The findings presented here offer additional insight as to the role that interface agents may play in the amount of time and effort (measured in mouse clicks over time) that a participant puts into a frustrating task. Participants interacted with an impossible task, built within the interface of a computer-generated gallery named “Grace Gallery”. Data was collected by providing test subjects with a laptop computer, one of three interface agent types, two human-interface device (mouse) options, and one impossible task. This study will measure the effect of the different interface agents’ presentation styles, on participants’ frustration levels as measured by mouse clicks and time spent on the interface agent.


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