9.5 Conclusion

Character interfaces are a form of puppetry. As physical characters who resemble and sound like familiar characters from television, they "stand in" for their television counterparts, evoking the same responses from users that social interaction with the television characters themselves would. The illusion of the interface character's authenticity extends beyond appearances and into the realm of behavior. The character's social interactions with the child must conform to the child's implicit social expectations, not just in terms of the character's personality but in terms of the social rules that govern the social exchanges in any specific social context. Puppeteers, as actors, bring their characters to life in this way, using a form of pretend. They rely on their own social skills, and their ability to mimic different personalities and voices, to cause their puppets to respond and act as if they are the characters they represent. Character interfaces utilize the same pretend strategy to invoke the same sorts of responses from users. The only difference is that they use digital technologies, rather than human actors, to make the interface characters move and speak.

Embodying an interface in a physical character allows users to respond to the interface with the social skills they already possess simply by dint of being human beings. Designing the interface to match these skills, and the expectations they create, makes interaction simple and intuitive for the user. Succeeding with such designs requires balancing the personality of the interface character with the abilities of the target...