Unpacking Lived Experiences of Wizards of Oz

at the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in Edinburgh, UK

In the Human-Robot Interaction community, Wizard of Oz is a commonly employed method where researchers aim to study user perceptions of robot technologies regardless of technical limitations. Despite the continued usage of Wizard of Oz, questions concerning ethical tensions and effects on the wizard remain. For instance, how do wizards experience interacting through technology, given the different roles and characters to enact, and the different environments to situate themselves in. In addition, the wizard's experiences and affects on results, continues to be under-explored.

The goal of this workshop is to surface ethical, practical, methodological, personal, and philosophical tensions in the Wizard of Oz method. Though a collaborative session, we seek to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be a wizard through eliciting first-person experiences of researchers. As a result, we hope to formulate guidelines for future wizards.

Organisers

Sofia Thunberg

is a postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg in HRI. She holds a PhD in cognitive science on work with companion robots for older adults in care homes. She has extensive experience of the WoZ method, both from lab studies and in the wild. She has previously organised workshops at RO-MAN and HAI.

Mafalda Gamboa

is a doctoral student at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg. Her work explores alternative views on robotics, including an emphasis on first-person experiences. She has organised and run workshops at CHI and DIS.

Meagan B. Loerakker

is a PhD student in the research unit of Human-Computer Interaction at TU Wien. In her work, she explores users' lived experiences with and user perceptions of different kinds of technologies. Her work has mostly been situated within the health and wellbeing realm, but has also explored this in human-robot and human-drone interaction contexts

Patrícia Alves-Oliveira

is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at the University of Michigan, where she leads the Robot Studio, a multidisciplinary research lab focused on human-robot interaction applied to health, education, and arts. Her research uses methods from engineering, psychology and design research to create both functional and aesthetically beautiful robots.

Hannah Pelikan

is an assistant professor in language and culture at Linköping University, and a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. She co-leads the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program---Humanity and Society research group on Autonomous Systems and Robotics in Society. She has studied robots and human operators through videoethnographic studies and led workshops and tutorials at HRI and CHI.

The Venue

Venue TBD

Workshop at the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in Edinburgh, UK

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