Drawing in Diversity: Co-Creating Diverse and Representative Depictions of Human-Robot Interactions

About the Workshop

Diversity and representativeness are crucial elements in depictions of human-robot interactions (HRI), from figures to diagrams to any graphical meta-material accompanying publications and other forms of knowledge-sharing. At present, there is no standard or open resource that provides the wealth of visual material needed to represent the breadth of HRI engagements, users, robots, embodiments, scenarios, contexts of use, or application domains. This may account for known representation biases in the user present in publications and meta-materials. In this half-day workshop, we aim to identify critical elements and sketch out possibilities, co-creating a wishlist for pictures and baseline meta-materials to be formalized into an open science resource for the HRI community. The format will be creation-focused, with tangible contributions produced all attendees. Outcomes will be formalized into a free and open resource following a refinement and production stage. As a meta-research project, this workshop will address the calls for open science and diversity, equity, and inclusion, empowering the HRI community to represent the ``human'' side of the equation with accuracy and inclusivity. No drawing skills required.

Organizers

Katie Seaborn – Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan; University of Cambridge, UK
Özge Nilay Yalçın – Simon Fraser University, Canada
Yijia Wang – Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan
Martina De Cet – Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Shruti Chandra – University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Mohammad Obaid – Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Schedule

13:15–13:30: Setup and greetings
13:30–13:40: Introduction, including to representation biases, meta-research, and diversity
13:40–14:30: Brainstorm wishlist
14:30–15:15: Wishlist card sort and voting
15:15–15:30: Coffee break (and organizer vote counting)
15:30–16:30: Drawing activity
16:30–17:00: Exemplar drawings card sort and voting
17:00–17:15: Final remarks

The workshop deviates from others with its hands-on format:

Brainstorm: Attendees will work together in small groups to brainstorm a list of elements typically represented in visual depictions of HRI, captured in text form on post-it notes.
Card-sorting and voting: Attendees will use a shared wall to display their post-it notes as “cards” and collaboratively organize and categorize these cards to eliminate repetition and identify key elements. Then, attendees will be given stickers to vote by consensus on the most important ideas.
Drawing: Attendees will sketch out the most important ideas with provided drawing tools. They will experiment with style (e.g., iconic, realistic), perspective (e.g., top-down, profile), and colour palette. They will identify difficult-to-draw elements and remain alert to representation biases.
Card-sorting and voting with the drawings as the focus.

Submission

We invite you to submit a 1-page position statements in PDF form (using the ACM (sigconf) template), with half a page dedicated to a statement of interest, including any specific representation biases the applicant wishes to target, and half a page available for either a sample drawing or examples of representation biases that need to be addressed (from the applicant's own work or that of others). Submissions will not be posted publicly.

Submissions should be sent by email to: TBA.

Deadline: TBA

Register

Participation registration is required via the HRI'26 portal. Please click the button below to register.