Anthropomorphic User Interfaces: Past, Present and Future of Anthropomorphic Aspects for Sustainable Digital Interface Design

Abstract

Interactions with computing systems and conversational services like ChatGPT are now integral to daily life. Surprisingly, user interfaces , the gateways to these systems, largely lack hedonic aspects. There is little attempt to intentionally make communication through user interfaces more like communication with humans. Anthropomorphic user interfaces, which integrate human-like attributes , can make interactions more pleasant and intuitive by allowing users to perceive and interact with interfaces as social actors. This enhances user experience, reduces the learning curve, and boosts adaption rates, but also holds the potential to make interfaces more sustainable, as they rely on familiar human interaction patterns. However, there is little consensus on how to build such interfaces. We conducted an extensive literature review on existing anthropomorphic user interfaces for software systems (past) to map and connect existing definitions and interpretations in an overarching taxonomy (present). The taxonomy and an accompanying web tool provide designers with a reference framework for analyzing and dissecting existing anthropomorphic user interfaces and designing new ones (future). CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → HCI design and evaluation methods; Interactive systems and tools.