Designing for Animal-Human Interaction (AHIxD)

• In Event: Animals and Technology Around the World, Past and Present 1

Abstract

We ran a workshop “Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) & Designing for Animal Interaction (AXD)” at OZCHI 2017, and invited researchers and practitioners who work in some capacity with animals and want to expand their working methods to include learning more from the animals. More recently, a growing body of work focuses on both the reciprocal nature of our relationship with animals [1] as sentient beings in a designed world and as partner-users suffering the effects of our designing in the world [2]. We found that Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) systems have been mostly designed and evaluated driven by human-centered approaches [3]. However, there is a growing body of research and need for an animal-centered approach that would benefit both humans and animals. We envisage designing more usable interactive systems to that begin with working from the intelligence of the animal, in order to improve the quality of the overall system and learnt outcomes. We have begun to gather a body of researchers and practioners together to investigate and discuss their understandings, experiences, competencies and implementations for best practices for Animal Interaction Design.
[1] Donna Jeanne Haraway. 2008. When species meet. {University of Minnesota Press} and {Bristol : University Presses Marketing [distributor]}, Minneapolis, Minn. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0732/2007029022-d.html
[2] Jessica L Cappadonna, Margot Brereton, David M Watson, and Paul Roe. 2016. Calls from the Wild: Engaging Citizen Scientist with Animal Sounds. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ’16 Companion), 157–160. https://doi.org/10.1145/2908805.2909413
[3] C. Mancini. 2011. Animal-computer Interaction: A Manifesto. interactions 18, 4: 69–73. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978822.1978836

Authors

• ANN JUDITH MORRISON, University of Southern Queensland

• Sarah Webber, The University of Melbourne

• Jane Turner, Queensland University of Technology