rough, first “beta” version of this talk- it's unpolished & there might be typos.

1. Friend or
foe?
Lessons learned from human-to-human interaction:
Human centered design with social perception
in mind.
UX Camp Europe 2019 #uxce19
Stefanie Kegel // @guerillagirl_ or @thegeekettez

2. The Geekettez.
Experience Design
Studio Mannheim/Berlin
Psychology
Interaction
Designer
Ladies that UX
Berlin (2016)
Music
( <3 SoMa FM)
Horror, Midnight Movies
and Trash Cinema
<3 Texas, NY,
California
Lecturer
Interaction
Design (CODE
University)

3. P.S.: I hate computers.

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_rage
Computer rage
» In 2007, a German man threw his
computer out the window in the middle
of the night, startling his neighbors.
German police were sympathetic and
did not press charges, stating „Who
hasn't felt like doing that?“ «

5. Fogg, B. J. Persuasive Technology : Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do.
Amsterdam; Boston :Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2003
Computer rage

6. Computer rage

7. B= f(P,E)
= Behavior as a function of the Person and their
environment
Kurt Lewin’s Equation
Lewin, Kurt: Principles of Topological Psychology (1936)

8. As designers, our job is
actually to design an
*environment*

9. *INTERFACE*

10. „A point where two systems, subjects, organizations,
etc. meet and interact“
*INTERFACE*

11. Interface?
Image Source: Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation

12. Interface?

13. Social presence lead to social
situations and responses
Social situation: A situation in which a person's cognitions, emotions,
motives and actions are influenced by the actual, suspected (or
sometimes merely imagined) presence of someone else.

14. ….like e.g avoiding to become a premium customer.
Social presence lead to social
situations and responses

15. What cues did people receive by this behavior?
Maybe something similar to this?
> Unhelpful behavior.
Computer Says No = #CarolBeerUX

16. „Wut -User“
Negative situations can lead to negative social responses

17. In Human to human interaction we use those social and often subtle
cues to make inferences/leaps of logic about this persons traits &
character, even we don’t know them.
Human service agent, employee: Are they
friendly? Helpful? Rude? Arrogant? —> derived
from subtle social cues
We fill in the blanks.

18. Ok, but computing technology is not alive!?
– Also inanimate things can convey
social presence through social cues.

19. Inanimate things can coney
social presence through social cues
Physical cues

20. Physical cues
Spoken language
Inanimate things can coney
social presence through social cues

21. Physical cues
Spoken language
Written language
Inanimate things can coney
social presence through social cues

22. Inanimate things can coney
social presence through social cues

23. Social cues ➝ Social perception
= Impression formation:
SYSTEM
We fill in the blanks. We make leaps of logic and are attributing
„personality traits“ from the appearance and behavior which
comes from a non-human system.
ORGANISATION/ COMPANY
INTERFACE as social actor:
Is it friendly? Helpful? Rude?
Arrogant? —> derived from
subtle social cues
Responsible for the
behavior of this system

24. 1.What are the intentions of other people toward me? (WARMTH)
2.How capable are they of carrying out those intentions (COMPETENCE)
Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, Xu (2002). A Model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived
status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2002, Vol. 82, No. 6, 878 –902
Social cues help us to form an impression of
other people. And when people get to know
other people, they have a primary interest in
two types of information:
Social cues ➝ Social perception
= Impression formation:

25. These judgments are of evolutionary necessity and
they are made a) very fast and b) automatically.
You wanted to know if a stranger is well intentioned
or ill intentioned toward you because that might have
been a matter of survival.
Our lizard brain is still there.

26. Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from
perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878-902.
Social cues ➝ Social perception
= Impression formation:
Competence
Warmth
Pride & Admiration
We feel attracted,
tendency to alliance
and support
Sympathy but also pity
Tendency to help, and
showing eventually
patronizing and
paternalistic behavior
We feel disgusted,
tendency to
dehumanize people.
Tendency to avoid &
reject them
Envy & Jealousy
Tendency to sabotage
and mistrust
High
HighLow
Low

27. Source: https://www.thecut.com/2015/05/simpsons-first-impression-matrix.html
Social cues ➝ Social perception
= Impression formation:

28. Example: The hidden delete
account function
Warmth might scale low, but
competence high: Meaning
they have the power to carry
out their intentions by sending
you through a never ending
maze so you can't achieve
your goal which was to delete
your account.
Unconscious inference: They
might have bad intentions
toward me, they might be
selfish. Might lead to mistrust.
Social cues ➝ Social perception
= Impression formation:

29. Sloppy use of text - eg by using bad
automatic translations, lack of
understanding (in voice-based UIs) or
buggy functions.
Warmth might scale high (depending on
how other things work) Competence
might scale low.
Unconscious inference: Pity, can’t take
the software seriously, eventually
mistrust. Absolutely critical when this
happens to „serious“ services like banks
or airlines.
Social cues ➝ Social perception
= Impression formation:

30. All the interactions which we might have with
organizations or companies via their products,
websites, apps, phone, customer service, social
media, etc - send us social cues via the behavior of
their products and how they communicate – and
we fill in the blanks and form an impression.

31. • Where for example would we find the voice-based assistant Siri (or
Alexa) on the warmth/competence model? And what does this mean to
our perception towards women?
• Where would we find (voice-based) technology in general on the
model? And what does that mean toward our perception and trust in
technology in general?
Outlook:

32. „One cannot not communicate“
– Paul Watzlawick

33. Thank you!
Stefanie Kegel // @guerillagirl_ or @thegeekettez
stefanie@thegeekettez.com