After she saw pictures of people dressing up their Roomba vacuums, Beki Grinter, an associate professor at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, decided to study the phenomenon. (We found one company, myroombud, that sells pre-made Roomba costumes like Sooshi the Goldfish and Roobit the Frog.) Her new report suggests that we can become emotionally attached to our gadgets and forgive them for not picking up all the dirt on the floor.
From the AP Story:
“They’re more willing to work with a robot that does have issues because they really, really like it,” [she] says. “It sort of begins to address more concerns: If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn’t have to be as reliable.”
The study taps into the idea of “emotional design” — that aesthetics can help form emotional bonds with objects, and ultimately influence our perceptions of their efficacy. Interestingly, though, this study seems to suggest that the gadget’s effectiveness is not even relevant if it’s “cute.”
Perhaps the Genius Bar at Apple should just hand out little dresses for busted iPhones.
