The proliferation of automation in domestic environments places a demand for their mechanisms to be self-explanatory to the layperson with no specialist training. The current work proposes a design approach that introduces kinetic cues to familiar physical user interfaces (i.e., throw switches) that will allow human-automation communication without the need of additional displays (e.g., screens, voice). Here, we report an exploratory study on how naïve users (n=15) responded to and interacted with a semi-automated lighting system that actively sought to engage them with itself; by through unprompted movements of its switch. Qualitative analyses of recorded interactions and semi-structured interviews reveal that users were surprised by unfamiliar automation and that kinetic cues promoted discovery of the system’s mechanisms and mitigated human-out-of-the-loop problems.

With increasing automation beyond a professional level and into private and public life, one can assume that the ironies of automation explained by Bainbridge have been experienced by most of the members of our hybrid society – one where interaction between humans and embodied digital technology (EDT) becomes the agenda. In order to realise the full potential of hybrid teams we propose taking a new perspective, where EDTs do not operate on a fixed level of automation but become cognisant of their supervisor’s capabilities through a shared interface. This enables mutual perception and thus the dynamical adjustment between joint or autonomous activity.