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With the growing importance of digital technologies in learning and assessment, it is important to consider user experience (UX) to ensure that tools provide useful functionalities for learning without overwhelming users, to motivate users and ensure that they have positive learning experiences, and to allow users to realize their potential with the help of technology. Building on a case study of concept mapping for technology-enhanced learning, we combined experience-driven and functionality-driven approaches in co-design sessions in four school classes (67 students). We investigated the anticipated experiences that students imagined as well as the functionalities and characteristics they expected. We found that combining experience-driven and functionality-driven approaches is a valuable method for improving technology-enhanced learning.

When flying robots are used in close-range interaction with humans, the noise they generate, also called consequential sound, is a critical parameter for user acceptance. We conjecture that there is a benefit in adding natural sounds to noisy domestic drones. To test our hypothesis experimentally, we carried out a mixed-methods research study (N=56) on reported user perception of a sonified domestic flying robot with three sound conditions at three distances. The natural sounds studied were respectively added to the robot’s inherent noises during flying; namely a bird song and a rain sound, plus a control condition of no added sound. The distances studied were set according to proxemics; namely near , middle , and far . Our results show that adding bird song or rain sound affects the participants’ perceptions, and the proxemic distances play a nonnegligible role. For instance, we found that participants liked the bird condition the most when the drone was at far , while they disliked the same sound the most when at near . We also found that participants’ perceptions strongly depended on their associations and interpretations deriving from previous experience. We derived six concrete design recommendations.

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