Eliciting New Perspectives in RtD Studies through Annotated Portfolios: A Case Study of Robotic Artefacts

TL;DR

This paper explores how annotated portfolios can elicit new insights in research-through-design studies, especially in human-robot interaction, by involving experts to critique robotic artefacts and reveal novel perspectives.

Contribution

It introduces the use of expert-annotated portfolios as a method to generate creative critique and insights in RtD studies, with methodological guidance.

Findings

Expert annotations reveal new design insights.

Annotated portfolios facilitate peer critique and reflection.

Methodological considerations for expert annotation sessions.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how to elicit new perspectives in research-through-design (RtD) studies through annotated portfolios. Situating the usage in human-robot interaction (HRI), we used two robotic artefacts as a case study: we first created our own annotated portfolio and subsequently ran online workshops during which we asked HRI experts to annotate our robotic artefacts. We report on the different aspects revealed about the value, use, and further improvements of the robotic artefacts through using the annotated portfolio technique ourselves versus using it with experts. We suggest that annotated portfolios - when performed by external experts - allow design researchers to obtain a form of creative and generative peer critique. Our paper offers methodological considerations for conducting expert annotation sessions. Further, we discuss the use of annotated portfolios to unveil designerly HRI knowledge in RtD studies.