My Robot Gets Me: How Social Design Can Make New Products More Human

by Carla Diana

Your relationships with your "smart" products are about to get a lot more personal. Think how commonplace it is now for people to ask Siri for the weather forecast, deploy Roomba to clean their homes, or summon Alexa to turn on the lights. The "smart home" market will reach well over $100 billion in the next five years on the promise of products that are truly integrated with our cooking, cleaning, entertainment, security, and hygiene habits. But the reality is, these first-generation "smart" products aren't very smart—yet. We're clearly seeing only the tip of the iceberg in terms of capability and how such products can enhance our lives. How do we take it to the next level? In a word, design—and more specifically, social design . In this fascinating and instructive book, leading product design expert Carla Diana describes how new technology is allowing designers to humanize consumer products in delightfully subtle ways. Showcasing vivid examples of social design principles such as "product presence," "object expression," and "interaction intelligence," we see how inventive uses of light, sound, and movement can evoke human responses to even the most mundane products. Diana offers clear guidelines and takeaways for conceptualizing, building, and optimizing products using such methods as bodystorming, scenario storyboarding, video prototyping, behavior charting, and more. My Robot Gets Me provides keen insights and practical advice to anyone interested or involved in the burgeoning smart marketplace, from product designers and developers to managers and venture capitalists.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Technology

271 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 30, 2021

Reviews

[Geoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that seems a little off in its structure and pacing. I like how it took a human-centered design perspective to the idea of what robots should be like and the structure of thinking through the different "rings" of social design issues (presence, expression, interaction, context, and ecosystems) was a nice frame. The interview and case studies were good, and I liked the general theme of needing to know humans to better design robots to interact with humans. The problem was that I felt the author didn't know their audience. At times things were explained in excruciatingly simple detail and at others complex concepts were skimmed right over. Was this a general knowledge book or a manual for specialists? Somewhat deflating to see the the author didn't apply some of the lessons of their field to their own writing and tried to plan for all possible reader interactions than design a specific book for a specific audience.

**Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Greg’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books provides its readers with the intellectual journey on how social design affects the products we use every day and those that are being brought about in this world.

Even though the book is primarily wiritten for product designers, it was able to provide enough narrative and discussion to aid the curiosity of learners like me.

I would never look at the items in my household the same way before. I never thought how much careful consideration are being provided in order for consumers like us to use our products comfortably until I read this book.

If you want to see how designers think when they conceptualize products in a way we humans can easily relate to, this is the book for you.

[Natasha den Dekker · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Read as part of work bookclub*

It's not always you get to read a design/research led book about robots and AI that's actually accessible and eminently re-readable. I thoroughky enjoyed this - the way that Diana clearly outlines each sphere that we need to consider social robotic design was brilliant. All of the examples (Nest! Moxi!) were dead on. The steady mention of vulnerable elderly users was a refreshing change as well as anyone presenting as neurodivergent.

However *not* 4 stars because there is legit no mention of diversity OR ethnic minorities and how they're to be included in this type of work. There is some talk about data and tech ethics but it's a few paragraphs here and there.

Great read but always concerned when things are super obvious by omission?

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at social design, which I was previously unfamiliar with.

[Hanie Noor · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Objects can't serve as substitutes for that human closeness we all crave; however, our deep need for social interaction makes us prone to interpreting interactions with products as social whether we are aware of it or not.”

I was a little bit in disbelief when I read that sentence. Okay, I get it. The book stresses a bit too much on how humans are driven to be social & how we deeply yearn for social interaction that we tend to interact with our belonging/tech product which sounds cringe-y when you put it that way. Social design in this context is understanding social problems & supporting positive social change in overcoming or simplifying complex human—tech relationship issues especially nowadays where robots are everywhere replacing menial jobs such as selling tickets, taking orders, etc. That might be the root of problem as we are used to interacting with humans that get jobs done, we thank the robot-vacuum as we used to thank the cleaners, we are used to asking waiters what are the signature dish at the restaurant, now we just tap on which dish we would like to order without such interactions anymore which could be the reason why some people especially the elders are struggling to adapt with such technologies.

Claims that it’s meant for wide audience, which content was explained in layman terms however, I would say it is more suited for product designers, engineers, programmers, or anyone who works related to or interested in robotic product designs. Mainly discusses on product development process esp on interaction design and user experience design i.e subset of robotics, product design, and social interactions (communication) of human & tech. As someone who researches & writes on tech related, the book is quite eye-opening as it advocate on social approach rather than solely tech features-based approach & the needs to integrate social design into tech product/services design. In the end, all these high tech inventions are meant to eases our daily lives yet it is too smart & too complex for humans to comfortably use or opt for.

“the best products come from working with people's preferences, tendencies, and limitations.”

[Rune]

Saying a robot is teaching autistic people to be more human is a terrible take. Also the weird tangent into weight loss and dieting was weird?? Like making jokes about how you can’t lose 15 pounds and need a technological ecosystem to “hold you accountable” was just. Unnecessary?

Also complete nitpick, but the fact that the spotlight examples broke up paragraphs in the middle of sentences was so annoying. Especially when a spotlight was like 4 pages long.

“[…] to empower children and adults with autism to teach themselves social and cognitive skills by training them to detect and understand other people’s emotions and then coaching them to respond appropriately. Oddly enough, this is an example of using a robot of sorts to teach people to be more human.” pg 229

The entire thing reeks of my freshman research group project where I had to argue with multiple people that insinuating or straight up saying autistic kids weren’t acting like humans is a TERRIBLE TAKE.

Additionally, there’s a review on this book that’s like “uh. what about privacy concerns” and you know what. same.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating deep dive into modern technology design. I enjoyed the optimism that the author offers throughout the book to use tools to "build the best future we can imagine".