Let's Go to the Mall: Investigating the Role of User Experience in Customers’ Intention to Use Social Robots in a Shopping Mall

Abstract

Aim of this study is to investigate the effects of user experience (UX) on shopping mall customers’ intention to use a social robot. Therefore, we used a Wizard of Oz approach that enabled data collection in situ. Quantitative data was obtained from a questionnaire completed by shopping mall customers who interacted with a social robot. Data was used in a regression analysis, where user experience factors served as predictors for robot use in retail. The regression model explains up to 23.2% of the variance in customers’ intention to use a social robot. In addition, we collected qualitative data on human-robot-interactions and used the data to complement the interpretation of statistical results. Our findings suggest that only hedonic qualities significantly contribute to the prediction of customers’ intention, that shopping mall customers are reluctant to grant pragmatic qualities to social robots, and that UX evaluation in HRI requires additional predictors.