User Centered Design in Practice Adapting HRI to Real User Needs Eleni Efthimiou † Embodied Interaction and Robotics Group Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/ATHENA RC Maroussi Athens Greece eleni_e@ilsp.gr Xanthi S. Papageorgiou Embodied Interaction and Robotics Group Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/ATHENA RC Maroussi Athens Greece xpapag@ilsp.gr Stavroula-Evita Fotinea Embodied Interaction and Robotics Group Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/ATHENA RC Maroussi Athens Greece evita@ilsp.gr Alexandra Karavasili DIAPLASIS Rehabilitation Center Kalamata Greece akaravasili@gmail.com Anna Vacalopoulou Embodied Interaction and Robotics Group Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/ATHENA RC Maroussi Athens Greece avacalop@ilsp.gr Theodore Goulas Embodied Interaction and Robotics Group Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/ATHENA RC Maroussi Athens Greece tgoulas@ilsp.gr ABSTRACT Here we present the methodological principles and technologies, which compose the backbone of designing the i-Walk platform Human Robot Interaction (HRI) environment. The reported work builds upon experience gained from previous engagement with development of the multimodal HRI communication model of the MOBOT assistive robotic rollator and its end-user evaluation, leading to our enhanced methodology for identifying and prioritizing user needs as applied in our current HRI design approach. Emphasis is placed on adopting multimodal communication patterns from actual human-human interaction in the context of mobility rehabilitation, which may enrich human- robot communication by increasing the naturalness in interaction from the side of the robotic device by adding more “human” characteristics both in respect to understanding and reaction capabilities of the robot. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing • Human computer interaction (HCI) • HCI design and evaluation methods • Computer systems organization → Robotics KEYWORDS Human-Robot Interaction, Multimodal HRI design, User centered design, User validation, Intelligent assistive robotic systems, Assistive HRI, Mobility assistance ACM Reference format: Eleni Efthimiou, Xanthi Papageorgiou, Stavroula-Evita Fotinea, Alexandra Karavasili, Anna Vacalopoulou and Theodore Goulas. 2019. User Centered Design in Practice: Adapting HRI to Real User Needs. In Proceedings of ACM PTERA ’19: The PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA ’19) conference. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5 pages. 1 The i-Walk Project Concept One of the greatest challenges that the modern developed societies are facing, is the rapid change in demographic data associated with the aging of their populations. A direct consequence is the increase of the population percentage that faces different degrees of mobility and cognitive problems apart from those caused by chronic related diseases and/or accidents. The need to improve the quality of daily living by supporting mobility and vitality, as well as enhance independent living of elderly individuals with motor limitations [1] has inspired technological solutions towards developing intelligent active mobility assistance robots for indoor environments, providing user-centered, context-adaptive and natural support [2-5]. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Permissions@acm.org. PETRA '19, June 5–7, 2019, Rhodes, Greece © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6232-0/19/06…$15.00 https://doi.org/10.1145/3316782.3322778 425