Exploring Winking in Interactive Systems as a Minimal Non-Verbal Cue for Enhancing Perceived Proactivity

This research explores how minimalist, human-like non-verbal cues specifically winking and turning gestures can enhance user perception of proactivity in interactive objects. We conducted a two-phase study to measure how these simple behaviors influence an object's perceived intentionality and engagement in both physical and virtual settings. The first phase involved a real-world experiment with a tangible box featuring animated eyes that could turn and wink at participants. The findings from this initial phase strongly suggest that the winking gesture significantly boosts the perception of the object's proactivity. To validate these results, a second phase was conducted in a virtual environment with 240 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The online study confirmed our initial findings, showing that a wink consistently increases perceived proactivity across different contexts. These results provide compelling evidence that integrating simple, low-complexity behaviors like winking can foster greater user engagement. This insight offers practical guidance for designing more accessible and resource-efficient interactive technologies, particularly in robotics and human-computer interaction, by effectively simulating intentionality through minimal gestures.