Interactive Parrot Playgrounds

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Interactive parrot playgrounds

Interaction Design Master’s program

Malmö University

Inge van Hoppe

Supervisor:

Thesis project 1

Jörn Messeter

2014

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Abstract

It is a challenging interaction design task to design for and with animals, especially when it comes to parrots as users. Not only because working with parrots requires a lot of patience, but also because there is very few related work. Parrots are highly intelligent and that is often the problem when they are being kept as companion animal. Parrots need a lot of stimuli to trigger their intelligence and to keep them busy, to avoid serious problems such as bad behaviour or self-‐mutilation.

The body language and the needs of one parrot were the main input and formed the basis for the project. Through an iterative process of testing a variety of existing applications, small experiments and prototypes with a parrot, a couple of interactive playgrounds have been developed.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to show my gratitude towards Jörn Messeter who helped me as supervisor through this slightly unusual project by providing me with helpful feedback and suggestions. I would like to thank my parrot for his participation, as he gave me the inspiration to conduct this project. Special thanks go to Clara Mancini and Franck Péron for giving valuable

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1. Introduction

Since November 2013 I am the proud owner of a baby parrot. Within the past months we worked on our bond and by now, he sees me as his partner. Everyday we play together and during this playtime he is allowed to play outside his cage. Like every other baby, he is exploring and enlarging his environment step by step and easily distracted. Because of our bond he is especially interested in what I am doing or what I am using: keyboard, mouse and mobile phone are not safe and have to be destroyed. When I am not home, he entertains himself with the toys in his cage.

My parrot seems to be particularly obsessed with my mobile phone, which has a silicon case around it for protection. One day he noticed that he could grab this case at certain points (e.g. adaptor, headphones) with the desire to destroy it.

During one of these play sessions I noticed something interesting. When he jumped on my hand, to have a better grip to chew on the mobile case, he also touched the screen. It

appeared that the screen responded on his touch: the screen swiped to the right. By walking on it, certain applications opened or he created new words when walking on the keyboard. Because of his interest in my mobile phone, I found it interesting to explore these

possibilities. Can I enrich my parrot with the use of a touch screen?

1.1 Background

“Interaction Design is about shaping digital things for people’s use,” according to Löwgren (Löwgren, 2013). Interaction Design is a discipline that focuses on creating (interactive) products and services that are useful and meaningful to humans. Interaction design is part of the Human-‐Computer Interaction (HCI) field: the interaction between humans and

computers. But what if we focus on animals as users instead of humans? What if we create something useful and meaningful according to the animals’ needs? Can we still call it Interaction Design?

According to Mancini (Mancini, 2013), an increasing number of HCI researchers is interested in the interaction between animals and computing technology. “The main question is

whether interaction design research which does not primarily focus on humans is relevant to HCI and, if so, in what way.” Therefore, a new discipline called Animal-‐Computer Interaction (ACI) has been introduced within the HCI field. Mancini (2013) argues “By Animal-‐Computer

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Interaction I mean the explicit and systematic application of design principles that place the animal at the centre of an iterative development process as a legitimate user and design contributor. “

One of the aims of ACI is to develop user-‐centred technology that can improve animals’ lives by supporting the fulfilment of their needs. That is my intention with this project.

Parrots in captivity need a lot of love, attention and enrichment to keep them and their minds busy, to avoid problems such as bad behaviour or even feather picking. The latter is a serious problem that can cause irreversible damage. This gave me the inspiration to explore the technological possibilities and to develop a playground that allows my parrot to enterain himself with.

1.2 Research question

Can we develop an interactive playground for a parrot with the use of technological input? • How to get a parrot’s attention to explore touch screen possibilities?

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2. Methodology

Animals are a completely different and somewhat new focus group within Interaction Design. It is important to keep in mind that we should design something that is based on

their needs and interests. The aim is to design something that improves their quality of life.

Designing for and with animals is certainly not easy. Their attention span is, in general, pretty short, which makes it difficult to keep them interested or focussed. Especially designing for a parrot requires a lot of patience and creativity.

2.1 Literature review

First I have a look at the available literature. I will focus on parrots in captivity, since they experience the most problems. What are the risks and why do they need enrichment? Furthermore, I have a closer look at the characteristics of my parrot species, to develop a playground that fits his needs. Each parrot species is different and has different abilities. Some parrots are predisposed to speak human language, while others have a talent for performing tricks or being very active. This all contributes to the design. I will look at his body language to determine how he feels, so I will pay a lot of attention to his behaviour. Since this project aims to combine parrots with computing technology, I also look at Animal-‐ Computer Interaction. What does it stand for and what is the importance? What do I have to keep in mind when designing for animals? At last, I will search for some examples that correspond to my project to find out what has already been done.

2.2 Observations and video

Close observations of my parrot’s behaviour during the project are the main input to collect data. Other methods that are normally used in an Interaction Design project, such as

interviews or surveys are obviously not an option. Based on his body language, I will be able to tell of if he is happy, interested or annoyed during user testing. All the prototypes will be made according to his interest or disinterest. His feedback will guide me through the project and it will lead to a couple of different project outcomes.

Testing with an animal requires a lot of attention: I will need to keep an eye on the prototype or device, I have to look at my parrot and his behaviour and I will record the

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testing. That is a lot going on at the same for one designer. By recording the testing, I create the ability to review the user testing at a later time. Thus, during the test I can focus on the playground and review his behaviour afterwards. These videos will play an important role during the whole process, as they will guide me to the next step in the process.

2.3 Research through Design

In this project I use a Research through Design (RtD) approach to gather my knowledge. In my opinion, this seems the most appropriate approach to perform this project. Since there are probably not much related projects, I have to create my own research by testing different prototypes in an iterative process. In short RtD means gaining new knowledge by creating and that is what I will do in this project.

According to Zimmerman (Zimmerman, J. et al., 2010) “Research through design is a

research approach that employs methods and processes from design practice as a legitimate method of inquiry”. Obrenovíc (Obrenovíc, Ž., 2011) argues, “Design-‐based research can produce knowledge that normally could not be generated by theoretical analysis or traditional empirical approaches.”

2.4 Iterative prototyping

During the whole project I use the iterative design method to find out what he likes, dislikes or what he prefers. I create a prototype, introduce it to him, analyse his behaviour, refine the prototype based on the expressed behaviour and I introduce it again. Each conducted test lead to new questions and to new prototypes. Performing this methodology will give me a lot of insights during the process that I otherwise will not find.

“Iterative design is a design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analysing, and refining a work in progress. In iterative design, interaction with the designed system is used as a form of research for informing and evolving a project, as successive versions, or iterations of a design are implemented,” according to Zimmerman (Zimmerman, E., 2003).

Nielsen (Nielsen, J., 1993) argues, “Iterative development of user interfaces involves steady refinement of the design based on user testing and other evaluation methods. Ideally, each

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iteration would be better than the previous version, but this is not always true in practice. Some changes in an interface may turn out not to be improvements after all.”

2.5 Input researchers

Because this project focuses on a relatively new area within animal computing, I will approach two researchers, Dr Clara Mancini from Animal-‐Computer Interaction and Dr Franck Péron, an Animal Scientist that performed a study with parrots, later in this project. That gives me the opportunity to carry out my project, which I will record on video, and ask their feedback based on my recordings. That will give us a better basis for discussion and reflection that I can use as input for my conducted project. This discussion will probably take place through Skype.

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3. Research framework

Exploring the possibilities between parrots and computer devices seems not to be very common within Interaction Design. Therefore, there is not a lot of existing research in this particular area. In order to understand more about animals and technology, I will have a closer look at parrots, Animal-‐Computer Interaction and a few touch screen related projects.

3.1 Parrots

Keeping a parrot as a companion animal is not that easy and is often underestimated by people. According to Dr. Irene Pepperberg, adjunct professor of psychology at Brandeis University, "People often buy parrots because they think of them as low maintenance pets. They think they can put them in a cage, hang a toy, put in a bowl of seeds and that's it. They don't realize how intelligent these birds are and how much social interaction they need" (Yin, 2000).

In contrast to dogs and cats, parrots are not domesticated animals. Even born in captivity they still remain wild. By taking a parrot out of his natural habitat and into our homes, we take away a lot of its daily activities; he has a safe place, food at regular times and is most of the time alone.

With the lack of these daily needs, boredom sets in and that is the worst thing that can happen to a captive parrot. Boredom can cause many behavioural problems; screaming, biting and aggression are only a few examples of problems a parrot can deal with.

On the more extreme side, feather plucking and self-‐mutilation can been found. These two problems are often compared with stress and fear (Sweat, 2013). This is very heart breaking, because this is not natural behaviour. They will not pluck their feathers or bite off their own limbs in nature. The main reason for this behaviour is a desperate call for attention, although poor dietary or diseases can also cause feather plucking.

Parrots kept in captivity need entertainment and enrichment to fill their days and keep them busy. Unfortunately, a lot of parrots end up in rescues, sanctuaries and adoption because their guardians are unable to fulfil their needs.

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Caiques

My parrot belongs to the species ‘Caiques’ (pronounced as kai-‐eeks): medium-‐sized parrots from South America with two subspecies: the White-‐bellied Caique and the Black-‐headed Caique. My parrot is a White-‐bellied Caique.

Caiques are very playful, energetic birds that love to be the centre of attention. They are not considered a beginner bird, because of their strong personality and ability to become

aggressive when timidly handled. They can be stubborn, beaky and dominant. On the other hand, they can form strong bonds with their human guardians, who provide them with love and affection (Kalhagen, 2008).

Caiques are very intelligent birds and like to learn tricks. On Youtube, a variety of Caique videos can be found. For instance, Daedalus putting rings on a peg (Caroline Moore, 2007), Heibel showing her first tricks (TheKimages, 2012), Daedalus putting coins in a piggy bank (Caroline Moore, 2008), Caiques playing basketball (tomirene2000, 2014) and even a Caique shopping with a basket (onon642, 2010).

They need a lot of playtime and training can help to prevent boredom. Training enriches them with new play possibilities. Because they are so energetic, training can also help in handling these birds. They are known as ‘clowns’ among parrots, because they love to show off their tricks and are very outgoing birds. A unique fact is that Caiques often prefer to walk or ‘hop’ rather than to fly. They are not known for being good talkers, but have a talent in mimicking environment sounds.

3.2 Parrots behaviour

Parrots do not only use vocalizations, but also their bodies to communicate their mood, emotions and forthcoming behaviour to humans. By having a closer look at the parrot’s posture it is possible to tell what the parrot’s feeling is. Reading my parrot’s body language will help me to determine how my parrot feels during the project. His behaviour is as follows:

Vocalizations

• Talking, singing and whistling

These are signs of a happy and content bird. When my parrot does this he is in a good mood and enjoys what he is doing or watching. My parrot cannot talk in

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‘human language’ but he mimics or create his own sounds. He communicates with me by talking or whistling to me. Sometimes he tries to mimic some sounds that I make.

• Chattering

Soft chattering means my parrot is content and has a good time. Sometimes he will also do it when he is sleepy. Loud chattering, on the other hand, is a form of

attention. • Purring

My parrot makes purring sounds, although it sounds more like a soft growl than a cat’s purr. Purring is an indication that he is really happy or excited about something he sees, hears or is playing with. Purring could also mean that he is annoyed, but until now he never seemed annoyed when he purrs.

Feathers

• Fluffing feathers

If my parrot feels really comfortable, content or a bit sleepy, he will fluff up his feathers a bit. This usually involves sitting on one foot along with chattering. He will lift one of his paws into his feathers and sit on the other one. Fluffing up the feathers helps to keep him warm and makes it easier to clean them. If a bird has its feathers fluffed up for a longer period of time and is very quiet, it could mean he is cold or he is sick.

Beak and head • Grinding

Grinding his beak tells me he is content or sleepy. Grinding is sliding the beak over the other and mostly from side-‐to-‐side. One reason of doing is, is to maintain the condition of his beaks.

• Biting

While baby parrots can be beaky and explore their environment with their beaks like a little child, serious biting is never positive sign. It is not always easy to tell why a parrot bites, since it can be caused by many things. The parrot can be scared of something or someone, defend his territory or can be angry. It can also mean ‘no’.

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For instance, if I want to pet my parrot, but he does not want to be petted, he will gently bite my finger to tell me that. He can also bite when he is frustrated. • Chewing

Parrots and birds like to chew on everything and is a form of entertainment. • Pinpointing

Birds are able to control their eye-‐pupils. Quickly enlarging and shrinking their pupils is known as ‘pinpointing’ or ‘flashing’. Pinpointing is a form of excitement and can be both positive and negative. It is important to look at other body signals to determine what the bird is communicating.

• Watching with one eye

If my parrot is very interested in something, he will turn his head and look at the object with one eye. This is common parrot behaviour, but for people who are not familiar with this, it could be a bit confusing because it can look like he is not interested or that he is looking at something else.

3.3 Animal-‐Computer Interaction

What is the aim of Animal-‐Computer Interaction and what does it stand for? According to Mancini (Mancini, C., 2011) “ACI aims to understand the interaction between animals and computing technology within the contexts in which animals habitually live, are active, and socialize with members of the same or other species, including humans”.

When it comes to development of interactive technology for animals, ACI has three aims. First, the technology should improve the animals’ life quality and expectancy by fulfilling their physiological and psychological needs. The second aim is for technology to give farm animals control over the process without producing any side effects. Last, they aim for technology that enables communication between companion animals and their guardians and to promote understanding between them.

In particular, ACI aims to develop a user-‐centred approach to design technology that is meant for animal use. This approach is based on the animals’ needs and preferences.

From an ethical view, there are a couple of principles when design for animals. All species should be respected for their characteristics and nonhuman participants should be seen and

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treated as individuals. Human or nonhuman participants should be protected from

physiological or psychological harm or from any harm at all. During a research, there should always be a possibility to withdraw from the interaction and human or nonhumans should never be forced. One should only work with a particular species if the intent is to create knowledge or develop technology that is beneficial or related to that species.

Furthermore, Mancini believes that developing ACI as a discipline could have multiple benefits for both animals and humans. It could strengthen the interspecies relationship and give a better understanding of the animals we share our lives with or work with closely. Finally, “ACI could expand the horizon of user-‐computer interaction research by pushing our imagination beyond the boundaries of human-‐computer interaction”.

Most articles within the area of ACI seem to focus on domesticated animals: dogs, cats, poultry and hamsters. Unfortunately, there is very few when it comes to birds or parrots within computing technology. When I asked Dr Mancini about this, she said it has probably to do with the fact that people test with the source that is available and that drags their attention. In most cases, those are dogs or cats. However, I was able to find a few examples of touch screen use among animals.

3.4 Related work

Orang-‐utan play on and beyond a touchscreen

TOUCH is a project, which aims to ease meaningful interactions between humans and organ-‐ utans through touch technologies (Wirman, 2013). TOUCH is focused on play, which is an important form of enrichment for animals in captivity. With this project they try to “explore how play can serve as a basis for cross-‐species communication between humans and orang-‐ utans”.

However, this study is more focused on cross-‐species communication and play between humans and orang-‐utans rather than the interaction with the touch screen device. It does mention the risk of boredom in captivity and how they used play as enrichment.

Furthermore it mentions designing for the ‘Other’, which can be seen as useful in designers’ self-‐reflection and development as it leads to new way of interaction possibilities.

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Parrots have personal music tastes

Dr Franck Péron conducted a study that focused on the personal music tastes of parrots (Copping, 2012). Two male African Grey parrots took part in a trial where a touch screen was placed in their cage for about a month. The screen showed two buttons that could be

activated by the parrot’s beaks and would play a 15 second fragment of a popular song: either ‘I Don’t Feel like Dancing’ by the pop group Scissor Sisters, or the ‘La Petite Fille de la Mer’ by Vangelis.

Because the touch screen was placed in their cage, the parrots could press the buttons whenever they liked. It turned out that both parrots had a different preference. One

consistently chose for the Scissor Sisters, the other for Vangelis. The researchers noticed the parrot’s dancing (by bobbing their head and feet) and singing along with the music.

I contacted Dr Péron to ask about the choices for a touch screen device, the shapes and the colours of the buttons on the screen. He said they chose for a touch screen so that the birds could interact with it even if the researchers were not there. It would allow the birds to have control over the broadcasted music. The idea was to use it as enrichment device for the weekend. He said they knew interaction with touch screens was possible, since another research group used a touch screen device in Vienna, with a focus group of pigeons and keas (a parrot species). They did not control for colour or shape bias, since the focus of the study was to see if the birds where selecting a shape / colour or the piece of music. Unfortunately, the study has not been published yet.

Pigeons use touch screens to solve challenging problems

Dr Edward Wasserman used a ‘string task’ in his study of the intelligence of pigeons (Prigg, 2013). The ‘string task’ is a standard intelligence test and is used to see if pigeons were able to pull at the right string to receive the treat. The computer screen displayed square buttons (white) that are attached to dishes (squares at the top) that are either full with food or empty. If the birds peck at the right button, the virtual bowl of food would move closer to them until it reached the point where the pigeons would be rewarded with real food.

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'The pigeons proved that they could indeed learn this task with a variety of different string configurations—even those that involved crossed strings, the most difficult of all

configurations to learn with real strings,' said Professor Wasserman. During experiments the researchers found out that the pigeons chose the correct string between 74% and 90% of the time.

Pigeons are not the same species as parrots, but this study shows that birds are indeed intelligent and that they are able to interact with a touch screen. They used a touch screen as input device for physical output: real food. The reward of real food probably triggered the pigeons to complete the tasks again.

Acquisition of the same/different concept by an African Grey parrot (Alex)

Pepperberg (Pepperberg, 1987) conducted a study with an African Grey parrot to train the concept of same/different. In earlier studies, this parrot named Alex, was learned to use English vocalizations to label objects based on ‘colour’ and ‘shape’. Based on that knowledge and his ability to speak the correct labels, the parrot was now trained to answer the right label (e.g. ‘colour’, ‘shape’ or ‘mah-‐mah’ [matter]) on the questions “What’s same?” or “What’s different?”.

Alex had an accuracy of 69,7% -‐ 76,6% for pairs of familiar objects that were not trained with and 82,3% -‐ 85% for pairs of objects whose combinations of colours, shapes or materials were unfamiliar.

In order for Alex to answer the question, he first had to attend to multiple aspects of the shown objects. Second, he had to determine if the shown objects were the same or

different. Then he had to decide based on what they were the same or different (e.g., where they both blue, or triangular, or made of wood?). Finally, he had to vocally produce the right label for the specific category.

This study shows (as some of her previous studies) that her subject Alex was able to understand abstract concepts such as colour, shape and material. Not only he was able to understand, he was also able to use the English language to respond to a question. An African Grey is a different parrot species than a Caique. Therefore it is hard to tell how far the similarity goes. However, it does show that parrots can see colours and shapes, that they

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see them as separate objects and that there is even the possibility that they can understand different, abstract concepts.

This is the only example that does not involve technology, but is nevertheless interesting when it comes to interface elements as it gives a glimpse of their cognitional ability.

Pepperberg and Alex the parrot are quite known in the avian world, since they worked together for 30 years. Pepperberg has written several papers based on studies with Alex. A video of Alex can be found by the following URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldYkFdu5FJk

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4. Exploring interactions

4.1 Parrot + Existing applications

To find out what the interaction possibilities and limitations are of a parrot as user, I tested a variety of existing mobile applications. I decided to use my iPad mini, because it has a slightly larger screen than my mobile phone. It is important to keep in mind that I only tested with one parrot of 8 months old, which means he is still a baby / little child. Therefore, it is possible that some actions are not possible for him at this point in life. The video of the testing can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00OaAgz-‐WGI

Tablet games for animals

My parrot was a bit insecure when he was allowed to play with the iPad for the first time. He approached the tablet very carefully, afraid of the moving objects on the screen. He

immediately sought for the safety of my hand. While sitting on my hand, he had more confidence and became inquisitive about the device. I am aware of the fact that my parrot needs some time to adjust when he is confronted with something new. Sometimes he needs a few minutes, other times he needs a few days. That is, because he has to determine if it is dangerous for him. After all, parrots are preys.

Although applications and in particular games for animals on mobile devices seem to increase in popularity, the number of available games is very low. On the Internet I found a few lists with games suitable for animals. I noticed that these games are usually designed for cats. However, I was not able to download the games from the website of Friskies

(https://gamesforcats.com), while they present a reasonable amount of games on their

website. From the available animal games I tested Game for Cats (by Little Hiccup LLC), Best Game for Cats (by Xilva) and Games for Cats (by Jaboston).

The ‘Chase the Laser’ game from Game for Cats by Little Hiccup LLC worked very well. See figure 1. This is the only game I tested which did not need any explanation. It was obvious for my parrot what he had to do. As soon as the laser beam moved over the screen, it

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then tried to chase the laser to grab it. Perhaps the laser moves a little bit too fast over the screen, but that did not discourage my parrot from playing.

Figure 1. ‘Chase the Laser’ Figure 2. ‘Games for Cats’

My parrot rated the Games for Cats from Jaboston as okay. See figure 2. The movement of the objects is slightly lower then in other games, but he did not really seem to be interested in these games. The objects on the screen are quite big, which scared him at first. The background has different colours, which could also distract him. The sounds are quite hard and perchance it does not please him.

By the lack of available games for animals, I searched for others games to test with my parrot. Caique parrots are considered as highly intelligent. Since my parrot is still a baby, I looked at some games for babies. The interaction in these games is less complex and focuses more on colours and sounds, which I found suitable for my parrot. Furthermore, I also tried some general games that I considered as doable.

Interaction possibilities

To control or rather play with the touch screen, my parrot used his beak to touch. For parrots that is a natural thing to do; they always use their beaks to explore new things in their environment. Besides his beak, he also used his tongue. With his tongue he was able to click or tap on certain figures to make them disappear or to trigger the interaction. Not only he was able to use the touch screen with his head, but also with his paws. By walking over the screen he interacted with the application: objects appeared on the screen, sound files started to play and he could even swipe between the iPad applications.

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Applications with moving objects are way more interesting than applications with non-‐ moving objects. For instance, the application ‘Cat piano’ from Games for Cats shows seven cats on the screen. See figure 3. Nothing happens until you or your cat touches one of the cats. The cats represent seven keys of a piano. When a cat is being touched, it sings a note for 1,5 seconds at most. My parrot tried it for a few minutes, but was not impressed at all by the lack of movements and animations in the application.

I noticed that my parrot has a very good view and is even able to see little details on the screen. For instance, the application Pocket Pond (by TriggerWave LLC) shows a pond filled with water and koi. See figure 4. Somewhere in the water lay two small red shapes that are not interactive. During the research he made his own game, trying to grab the red shapes out of the virtual water. He could spend hours with this particular application, trying to achieve his goal.

Figure 3. ‘Cat Piano’ Figure 4. ‘Pocket Pond’ Figure 5. ‘Giggle Gang’

Perhaps the most valuable insight gained by testing, is the importance of sound. The first time I noticed was when he played with the application Giggle Gang (by Fisher Price). He touched the figure on the screen and immediately heard a short sound clip of a giggling baby. See figure 5. He was surprised and looked up. When he did not hear it anymore, he touched the screen again and the figure started to giggle again. After a few times, my parrot started purring, like a cat. When he does, it means that he likes it.

The biggest response I got from the application Pocket Pond, as mentioned before. The first time I started the application, he immediately purred by hearing the sound of water. He ran

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to the screen to have a look and puffed out his feathers and shaked like he was going to wash himself. He carefully walked over the screen, hearing the movements of the water. At that point, he started to explore the area around the iPad, looking for the water to appear. There is continuous background music of nature sounds, when the water is not being touched. My parrot sat and listened for a few minutes, enjoying the sounds of nature. The same happened with Piano Pals (by BigStack Studios). He did not understand the

purpose of the application at all, but he liked the nature sounds as background music. Again he purred and concentrated on the music, which seemed to give him a calm state of mind.

Interaction limitations

Besides the possibilities I also noticed a couple of limitations for my parrot as a user. As mentioned before, he likes to walk or sit on the screen of the iPad. The screen responds to his beak, tongue and paws, which has led to activating multitasking gestures. Sometimes he accidentally swiped between the applications on the iPad or between different screens. This interrupted his play and I had to switch back to the right application. So now and then he was a little inpatient and jumped back on the screen, while I was still trying to find back the application. Fortunately, the iPad has a setting to activate or deactivate the use of

multitasking gestures. This problem was easily solved.

By far, most applications that are tested make use of the drag interaction. For humans this is not a problem and even babies swipe with their little fingers over the screen. Cats and dogs are able to perform some sort of swipe movement when they try to catch the objects on the screen (CompilarizTVi, 2013). My parrot was unable to swipe in the tested games. I do not think he is incapable to do so, but these games are not optimized for him.

At first, Fruit Ninja (by Halfbrick Studios) seemed to be a doable game for my parrot. However, the fruits fly too fast for him to catch them. Because he used in particular his tongue for clicking, he was not fast enough. Almost all games for babies use dragging and swiping interactions, with sound and small animations as instant feedback. The giggles in Giggle Gang rotate at their place when the iPad lays flat. This makes it easier to drag them over the screen, but my parrot does not know yet how to do so. With some training he could be able to, but I am not sure if that is possible within the given time.

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There is huge difference between games developed for animals or babies and general applications. It is the use of advertisements in games. The applications for animals and babies did not have advertisements in the actual game. General applications that are for free make often use of in-‐app purchases to still earn some money. However, my parrot does not know that this is advertisement and thinks it is part of the game. Especially moving banners or pop-‐ups are interesting to him, but most of the time the activation happened accidentally by walking on the screen. This became a little annoying for both of us, because the play was regularly interrupted.

Another distinction is that games for animals or babies implemented, what I would call, some sort of safety button. These buttons require different forms of interaction to go back to the menu, such as pressing it for 10 seconds, tapping twice or three times on a particular button or clicking on multiple buttons in a specific order, so these special users can not accidentally close the game. There is only one exception and that is pressing the home button on the iPad.

Sometimes my parrot becomes a bit greedy about the iPad. In particular it starts when he plays with the Pocket Pond application for more than 10 minutes. When he thinks I want to take the iPad away from him, he bites my fingers to warn me. As a parrot owner, I am not afraid of being bitten and it has no effect on me. But besides greedy, it could also mean that he is frustrated. I think that he tries to drink the virtual water and becomes frustrated because he is unsuccessful every time. This is definitely something to keep in mind, because frustration is not something I aim for within the project.

4.2 Parrot + small experiments

In order to create a parrot-‐appropriate interface, more testing was required. The goal of this second testing phase was to look for interface parameters that he got exited about. From previous testing, I learned that rewarding is a very important aspect for him. But what kind of reward works best for him?

The testing took place in an iterative process; I presented a prototype, made notes, refined the design and repeated. This gained me the most insights and gave the possibility to play

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with the parameters for the best outcome. The video of the testing can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq2tNl1nPGg

First, two simple prototypes in Processing were created. The first prototype had six squares with each a different colour. See figure 6. The purpose of this prototype was to find out if he is able to see the squares as separate objects and which colours he likes and dislikes.

The second prototype had three different objects: a rectangle, circle and triangle, all with a different colour. See figure 7. In the beginning, all the objects were fixed but after a day I decided they should be rotating, to find out if he is more attracted to moving objects rather than fixed objects and if there is a particular shape he is interested in the most.

The testing was done over a couple of days. Not only to see if my parrot is consistent in his choices, but also because there were days he did not wanted to test but play with different things. The prototypes also slightly changed over these days, based on received results. I played with colours, sizes and shapes to find out what triggers his attention the best.

Figure 6. Prototype 1 Figure 7. Prototype 2

Evaluation

In the first prototype, he explored each square and colour. He is definitely able to see the separate objects since he inspected the shapes precisely. He seems to have a clear

preference for the colour orange. He spends more time at the orange object or he chose to explore the orange object first before moving on to the other colours and objects.

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Despite the fact that he is able to see the objects, he was easily bored. There was no feedback for him when he touched he squares. Nothing changed on the screen: no movements, no colour changing and no audio feedback.

I learned that working with Processing on iPad is quite challenging. The prototypes were created on a laptop with Processing where I was able to use a keyboard for programming. They were tested on the laptop and provided with short audio files that would start playing when a certain shape was touched. However, when I transferred the code to iPad, problems occurred. For some reason, iPad does not seem to support all functions. Some objects were not rotating and the sound files did not work. I haven’t been able to figure out what caused these problems between iPad and Processing. To solve the sound problem, I used a Wizard of Oz approach in the second prototype.

The second prototype was based on shapes and movements. When it came to different shapes, he found the circle more interesting. Even when I changed the prototype from fixed objects into rotating objects, he still found the circle more attractive than the moving

objects. After this observation, I gave all three objects an orange colour to see if this affected his choice. Again, the circle was preferred. I think this is because a circular shape is more related to nature, where a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds have a circular or oval shape. Probably the same goes for the orange colour.

I used the Wizard of Oz approach to provide the prototype with feedback in the form of sound. When my parrot touched one of the shapes, I pressed a specific key on my keyboard to activate one of the sound files. He immediately looked up and listened to the sound. It definitely made the testing more interesting for him.

Another important observation during these conducted tests is the lack of physical objects. More than once he took one of his toys and placed it on the screen to start playing with it, or he preferred to play with his toys rather than with the iPad. See figure 8.

Also, he was more interested in the case around the device than in the screen itself. After only a couple of days he noticed that the iPad has a case around it that he is able to grab. Especially the openings in the case (for the adaptor or headphones) are attractive, because it is easier to destroy the case at that specific place. Only a few days after that, he found out

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that the screen has a screen protector that he can lift up, because there is a small hole in the protector where the front camera is located.

Figure 8. Placing a ball on the screen.

Overall, he had a bigger interest in physical objects than in the screen. This has probably to do with the fact that he is unsuccessful to grab the objects from the screen. Therefore, it does not trigger his attention for more than a couple of minutes. I realised that I needed some sort of box where I could lay the device in, so he would not be distracted by the hardware and at the same time I can protect my iPad from being destroyed.

What are the interface parameters?

Based on these results, I have found some parameters to create a parrot-‐appropriate interface design. These parameters are as follows:

Colour

The use of colour is necessary. He seems to have a strong preference for the orange colour. He can definitely see colours and I believe he finds them attractive since he always comes to explore them on the screen. I also noticed this in the baby or toddler application that we have tested before. These applications contain a lot of colour and he seems to like that.