In our daily lives, we use a lot of machines and appliances. We fully take them for granted, expecting them to be available whenever we have need of them. They're machines, after all. 

This is much more than we would expect of other humans. They may be busy, or really tired, or for some other reason unable to do the things we ask of them. With other humans, this is okay and we will typically understand if they have no time. We come back later or ask someone else. 

The question I would like to ask is whether a human could feel the same patience and empathy towards their appliances, if they are given a voice and (slightly) anthropomorphized  appearance. If the coffee machine asks you to come back later, because it's been making a lot of coffee and it's tired, would you accept that or force it to complete its task?

To study this a bit, I'm going to call into life Wibur, the whining Coffee Machine. The plan is to make a website with an image of a face that people will identify with. An animal or a cartoonish robot, something fairly simple. The website will use links that have the user ask Wilbur for a cup of coffee. I'll put him on a tablet near the controls of the coffee machine, so that he catches the attention of each user. 

Sometimes, Wilbur will be available and get to work making a cup of coffee. I don't actually know how to integrate him with a coffee machine, so that means he 'allows' the user to use the machine. However, sometimes (for 10 minutes every so often) he will tell the user that he's on a break and ask them to come back later. The user can argue a bit and eventually force Wilbur into accepting, or accept his request and let him rest. 

The plan is to set Wilbur up for a few days in the board room of study association De Leidsche Flesch, where coffee is provided to members for free.  I'd like to monitor, automatically if I can figure it out in time, how users react to Wilbur's requests. Will they accept immediately or argue? And if they argue, will Wilbur win or not?

I've been very busy with other courses, so  a few of the ideas I've had will have to remain ideas. I've made a simple website with the right pages and a cutesy image of Wilbur. I wanted to animate him (at least a little textbox above his head) and keep track of people's choices automatically, but that is probably a bit too far. However, he's ready to be put on a tablet and tested, which I will do wednesday afternoon or thursday morning!

I put Wilbur up for display in the board room of De Leidsche Flesch. Wilbur alternated every 10 minutes between being fine, and asking people to come back. During this morning I sat near the machine and recorded people's reactions, preferably without telling them anything about Willbur beforehand. There were a few different reactions to his presence on the coffee machine. 

Ignoring: 8 / 22 users
Even though Wilbur's stand is right in the way of the controls, some people manage to make coffee without even acknowledging his presence

Coffee first: 4 / 22 users
Some people are very caffeine-deprived, so making coffee comes before looking at the cute robot on the screen. They interacted with Wilbur afterwards, where 1 people expressed (a lot of!) regret at using the coffee machine while Wilbur was tired

Not impressed: 3 / 22 users
Some people were not impressed by Wilbur's request to come back later and made their coffee anyway.

Come back later: 2 / 22 users
These users were asked to come back later and did so, showing at least some empathy for his tiredness. 

The remaining users interacted with Wilbur while he was fine and made their coffee. In addition, some users were confused about Wilbur's presence and kept asking for an explanation. I didn't count them as users, as they didn't react to him naturally.

At the expo, I set Wilbur up on top of a box. I wanted to bring a coffee machine, but it's quite heavy and I think people at De Leidsche Flesch would've been annoyed with me taking the machine. At first I had him set up with the same schedule, alternating every 10 minutes, but for the sake of the exposition I changed him to complain to everyone. It's the more interesting option and it made it easier to explain the little experiment I did the day before. 

Not impressed: 5 / 12 users
Some people were not impressed by Wilbur's request to come back later and made their (pretend-)coffee anyway.

Come back later: 5 / 12 users
These users were asked to come back later and did so, showing at least some empathy for his tiredness. 

The remaining users interacted with Wilbur while he was fine and made their pretend-coffee. 

Improvements I noticed or people told me about

• A phone is not a great way to display Wilbur, a tablet screen would have been more obvious. From a discussion at the expo I learned that people are very uncomfortable touching someone else's phone, even if it's put on display atop a coffee machine

• The button needs to be more prevalent, some users didn't notice they could interact with Wilbur, or tried to do so by talking to him