Improvisational Participatory Storming: A Tookit of Improvisational Design Methods for Human-Robot Interaction

Katie Assaf and Sawyer Collins and Kevin Rich and James Walker and Nicholle Harris and Tom Williams

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Theatre-based design methods have become recognized as highly effective for robot interaction design. However, there are many domains in which it would be inappropriate or ineffective for designers to role-play stakeholders, such as when working with vulnerable populations. In such cases, researchers typically engage in participatory methods, so that those populations can directly contribute to the design process. We see a key design gap created by this tension: How might community members be effectively involved in theatre-based design methods? In this work, we bring together academics and practitioners across HRI, Theatre, Drama Therapy, and Applied Improvisation to address this challenge, and present Improvisational Participatory Storming (IPS) --- a novel Theatre-based Participatory Design Method that is uniquely well suited for Human-Robot Interaction. In presenting this novel design method, we make seven key contributions. Specifically, we identify (1) a concrete three-section structure for IPS workshops; (2) a novel reuse of Tabletop Role-Playing Game safety tools to mitigate risks in IPS activities; (3) the design objectives to be met through IPS; (4) the context-specific constraints that inform which theatre-based design activities should be used to meet those objectives; (5) seven key roles that characterize how participants may participate in IPS activities; (6) key dimensions of IPS activities; and (7) three ways that IPS activities can be sequenced to scaffold participation.