Grounded Zoomorphism: An Evaluation Methodology for ACI Design

Abstract

This paper proposes and evaluates a novel method for the analysis and the refinement of products and designs that participate in playful, digitally-mediated human-animal interactions. The proposed method relies on a Grounded Theory approach and aims at guiding design and research in the field of Animal Computer Interaction in a way that is better focused on the experience and needs of the animals interacting with playful, digital artefacts. In order to validate the proposed techniques, we designed a video game (Felino) in which cats and humans play together on a single tablet. Felino was then tested together with cats (N=19). Guidelines for the refinement of the game itself emerged from the process, and are presented as exemplary outputs of the proposed method at the end of this study.