"Programming - It’s not for Normal People": A Qualitative Study on User-Empowering Interfaces for Programming Collaborative Robots

Technology can be empowering: It can lift the burden from tasks we find dreadful and help us excel in tasks we enjoy. Equally, a mismatch between the user interface (UI) and our skills can make us feel incompetent and reluctant towards the technology. With the trend to increase the level of automation in fields beyond traditional manufacturing, such as laboratories or small workshops, new technologies such as collaborative robots (cobots) are entering the workplace. The technology literacy levels of professionals in these fields may vary greatly depending on their age, gender, education and personal interests, creating a challenge in designing universal cobot UIs. In this qualitative study, we address the question of how introducing interaction skills and intelligence to cobots may inhibit or encourage users to use them in their work context. The interviews, performed with 15 individuals working in laboratory settings, gave rise to numerous themes relevant to the design of user-empowering cobot interfaces for individuals with varying technology literacy levels: As "programming may not be for a normal person", talking to a robot may not be for another. Incorporating the unique interests, fears, personal and domain experience of the end users can contribute to the design and development of cobot interfacesas diverse as their needs, thus maximizing the likelihood of successful integration across diverse work environments.