Using Behavioural Information to Help Owners Gather Requirements from their Dogs' Responses to Media Technology

The study of non-human animals' interactions with technology is referred to as Animal- Computer Interaction (ACI). Data gathering with these non- human animal users typically relies on the owner as a proxy to gather requirements and feedback from the animal's behavioural reactions. These owners, however, may provide poor information, as they are habitually not knowledgeable in animal behaviour. To improve data gathering in Dog-Computer Interaction (DCI) research, we present a Dog Information Sheet (DISH) for owners which contains known dog physical behaviours and their potential cognitive reactions. This is used to create a more informed dog owner observer in order to improve feedback in ACI. DISH's effect on owner evaluations is assessed by gauging their own dog's behavioural reactions to persuasively designed media. The findings established that when using DISH, owners were better at identifying both the behaviour perceived and at reasoning behind their dogs' reactions. However, owners using the DISH were unable to recognize the different dogs' behavioral states unless they considered themselves experts at dog behaviour. Whilst this research is centred on collecting data on dogs to improve User Experience (UX) in a Dog-Computer Interaction (DCI) context, the method presented behind the DISH can be applied to both ACI and Human - Computer Interaction (HCI) field to help interpret behaviours during requirement gathering and evaluative practices for non-vocal and limited cognitive users.

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