# Social Robot Co-Design Canvases Social Robot Co-Design Canvases (SoRoCo Canvases) free version by Minja Axelsson is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attributions-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Sponsored by Futurice. Cite as: **Axelsson, M., Oliveira, R., Racca, M., & Kyrki, V. (2021). Social robot co-design canvases: A participatory design framework. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI), 11(1), 1-39.** A journal article ["Social Robot Co-Design Canvases: A Participatory Design Framework" has been published in Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction here][1]. # Referring to the canvases if you build on top of them The canvases are intended to be built on top of. However, referencing should be done properly. - If you are **writing an article or other publication, thesis, or blog**, you should refer to my original work like this: "This work builds on top of the original work of Minja Axelsson’s Social Robot Co-Design canvases which can be found at https://osf.io/jg2t8/ (Axelsson, M., Oliveira, R., Racca, M., & Kyrki, V. (2021). Social robot co-design canvases: A participatory design framework. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI), 11(1), 1-39.)" - If you are publishing **PDFs or other files of canvases or other tools that build on top of my original work**, you should refer to my original work like this: "This work builds on top of the original work of Minja Axelsson’s Social Robot Co-Design canvases which can be found at https://osf.io/jg2t8/ (Axelsson, M., Oliveira, R., Racca, M., & Kyrki, V. (2021). Social robot co-design canvases: A participatory design framework. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI), 11(1), 1-39.) The canvases are shared here with a CC BY-SA 4.0 license." Note that the CC BY-SA 4.0 license contains the following text: "**ShareAlike** — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original." This means any work that builds on top of my original work must be shared with the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, as well as refer to the original work. # What are the canvases used for? The canvases can be used by multidisciplinary teams to design social robots. They can also be used to learn about the design of social robots, and to analyze and compare existing social robots. The canvases provide the following benefits: - Providing structure, clarity and a clear process to the design - Encouraging designers and users to share their viewpoints in order to progress toward a shared one - Providing an educational and enjoyable design experience for the teams - Bringing a common language into robotics - Enabling ethical considerations before building a solution # How do they work? You can print the canvases as A4, A3, or A1 sizes. Refer to the "design_path.pdf" file to see which canvases to apply in your design process. The canvases follow the process of problem space, design guidelines, and solution space. This is illustrated in the file "design_framework.pdf". The canvases follow the process of first defining the problem space, after which design guidelines are created, which project the qualities of the problem space onto the solution space, in order to encourage purposeful design. The canvases can be used to think about social robot design problems, to design an entirely new robot, or to modify or select an existing robot to answer a particular problem. The canvases are grouped as follows: ## Phase 1: Problem space - 01: Problem space of designing a robot - 02: Ethical considerations of a robot ## Phase 2: Design guidelines - 03: Design guidelines of the robot ## Phase 3: Solution space ### Path 1: If the design team only needs a quick draft of the robot, use this path. Canvases: - 04: MVP of the robot ### Path 2: When designing your final product, use these canvases: - 05: Environment of the robot - 06: Form of the robot - 07: Interaction of the robot - 08: Behaviour of the robot Additionally, the following canvases can be used to design more in-depth. - 09: Service ecosystem of the robot - 10: Experience flow of the robot ## Structuring design sessions There are two methods: - Individuals have 10 minutes to consider their own thoughts on the canvas first, after which they can collaborate and discuss their thoughts for 10-20 minutes. - Teams can collaborate simultaneously for 20-30 minutes per canvas. Choosing the method depends on the time slot available. In order for introverts to be able to participate more easily, the first method is preferred. During the building of the robot, the canvases should be used in an iterative manner. Each iteration of the build should be evaluated with users and experts, and the design refined based on feedback. # The example canvases The example canvases (file "robot_canvases_examples-oodi_library_robot.pdf") feature a robot designed to guide users to books and book categories in Helsinki's (Finland's capital city) central library Oodi. The robot was designed together with Oodi's librarians, Oodi's customers, and Futurice's roboticists. The canvases are filled in based on the results of a co-design workshop, with small edits done to correspond to the current design of the robot. The robot is being pilot tested at Oodi library in Fall 2019. [You can read more about the library robot and the project here.](https://bit.ly/32PsSR7) # How have the canvases been used before? The canvases have been used by multidisciplinary teams, to design e.g. a robot that guides people to books at a library, and a robot that played games with teenagers online. Both robots were designed by multidisciplinary teams, consisting of roboticist, domain experts, and future users of the robots. The canvases have also been used in social robot design workshops, where participants learn about social robots. Some feedback from people who have used the canvases: - "Useful to approach the problem from different angles, using each group member's different skills to think of new ideas and concepts." - "The canvas helps to enhance one's own imagination, bringing forth ideas that the group would have probably not come up with otherwise." - "The canvases helped keep to the process, helped the group stay focused." - "I enjoyed thinking about the ethical questions, it's good to think about them. In a way it reveals some of my own biases." [1]: https://doi.org/10.1145/3472225