TR#559: The Sensing and Measurement of Frustration with Computers:
Teaching Emotion Recognition with Interactive Media & Wireless Expressive
Toys
Carson Reynolds
S.M. Thesis
May, 2001
Media Arts and Sciences Program, M.I.T.
By giving users a way to vent, we transform their frustration into a
valuable source of information for adapting interfaces. Drawing from
psychophysiology and tactile sensing, we present frustration sensors
as a way of incorporating user feedback into interface design
processes. This thesis documents the development of designs for
several sensors aimed at detecting user frustration with computers.
Additionally the thesis explores the design space between active
sensors that facilitate the communication of frustration and passive
sensors that detect frustration without demanding the uattention.
During evaluations we learned several things:
- Participants liked having devices to communicate frustration.
- The data that was collected during active and passive user interactions can be used for redesigning and adapting systems (either by hand, or automatically).
- User behaved differently during usability problems.
In a comparative study of three active designs (Frustrometer,
Squeezemouse, and traditional feedback web page) we found that users
prefer the Frustrometer to a web feedback page. Preliminary results
suggest that frustration-stimulated behavior can also be detected
through passive sensors. When combined with other contextual
information, these sensors provide a crucial building block in
systems that interact and adapt to human behavior by indicating where
and when change is needed.
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