Operator Enjoyment in Teleoperation of Customer Service Robots: Interface Design Guidelines from a Field Study

Various customer service robots’ teleoperation interfaces (I/Fs) have been developed for human-robot collaboration. However, a previous study has indicated a lack of operator enjoyment. This study aims to design an I/F that elicits operator enjoyment and identifies the factors that contribute to this enjoyment. We developed two I/Fs: a high degree of freedom I/F and a gradual flexibility degree of freedom I/F based on gamification to elicit operator enjoyment. Using these I/Fs, we conducted a field study in a real shopping mall to investigate the operators’ experiences. As a result, the operators in this experiment greatly enjoyed using our I/Fs. The results showed that our I/Fs could elicit operator enjoyment with the following three I/F factors suggested as potentially important design guidelines: ease of use through anonymity, moderate restriction of freedom, and sharing experiences with a group of operators.