Testing interactive products with the robot intervention method

Abstract

This paper introduces robot intervention, a novel approach to usability testing with children. A social robot is used as a proxy for a test administrator who conducts an active intervention session remotely in a Wizard of Oz fashion. The motivation of the technique is that children will feel at ease and enjoy interacting with the social robot, and thus produce more frequent and informative verbalizations regarding their interaction with the product under test. First experiences regarding this method are positive with regards to the feasibility of the method and with regards to how well it is received by children.