CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminar (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design)
Fridays 12:30-1:50 · Gates B01 · Open to the public- 20 years of speakers
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March 16, 2001 Going about our business in the world is easy and successful, in part because most enterprises have a great user interface -- people. They offer expertise for helping us, by playing familiar roles as our guides, sales assistants, teachers, etc. They make it easy for us to get the assistance we want or need, by playing our complementary roles as visitors, shoppers, students, etc. Of course, people communicate with us the easy way, in natural language conversation, complemented by meaningful gestures and facial expressions. Often, the people who help us also get to know us. They remember us, give us personalized service, and make us feel good. Finally, people can bring color and warmth to even our mundane transactions, with their personalities, social engagement, and individual stories. By contrast, today's online world is a cold and lonely place. We go there alone, wandering around in a self-service environment, with no one to help us, support us, or keep us company. How can we bring the high-function/high-touch experience of interacting with people to an online world whose great promise rests on automation? I propose that we should staff the Internet-with smart interactive characters, who will play the same variety of helpful roles people play in the real world, engage us with similar social and communications skills, and enrapture us with their vivid and distinctive personas. In this talk, I'll discuss the state of the art of interactive characters-a highly interdisciplinary enterprise combining business, technology, psychology, and art. I'll demonstrate a few illustrative characters. And I'll try to entice many of you to create and deploy characters of your own. |
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