Let's Make this Fun!: Activities to Motivate Children and Teens to Complete Questionnaires

Abstract

Research in human-robot interaction and HCI frequently uses questionnaires, but these are boring, and participants, particularly children and teenagers, lack motivation to complete them. To improve participants' enjoyment, engagement, and motivation during this process, we propose adding a fun activity afterwards, where a completed questionnaire is needed for participation. We trialed several ideas during a slow game jam with 11--16-year-olds and a participatory design workshop for zoomorphic robots with 8--11-year-olds. Initial observations suggest these ideas were engaging for participants, helped with quick questionnaire completion, and helped build rapport between the researchers and participants. Therefore, we present guidelines for researchers wanting to use a fun activity or a series of fun activities like this. Further investigation is needed to establish if this approach has an impact on response quality.