Affinity Diagramming with a Robot

We investigate what it might look like for a robot to work with a human on a needfinding design task using an affinity diagram. While some recent projects have examined how human-robot teams might explore solutions to design problems, human-robot collaboration in the sensemaking aspects of the design process has not been studied. Designers use affinity diagrams to make sense of unstructured information by clustering paper notes on a work surface. To explore human-robot collaboration on a sensemaking design activity, we developed HIRO, an autonomous robot that constructs affinity diagrams with humans. In a within-user study, 56 participants affinity-diagrammed themes to characterize needs in quotes taken from real-world user data, once alone, and once with HIRO. Users spent more time on the task with HIRO than alone, without strong evidence for corresponding effects on cognitive load. In addition, a majority of participants said they preferred to work with HIRO. From post-interaction interviews, we identified eight themes leading to four guidelines for robots that collaborate with humans on sensemaking design tasks: (1) account for the robot’s speed; (2) pursue mutual understanding rather than just correctness; (3) identify opportunities for constructive disagreements; (4) use other modes of communication in addition to physical materials.