This paper explains the process of developing a scenario involving the use of a robotic platform to enhance the work experience of disabled employees. We outline the challenges involved in revealing the potential unintended consequences of introducing elements of Artificial Intelligence, automation, and robotics into a socially and ethically complex and potentially fragile scenario, and the practical challenges involved in giving a voice to vulnerable users throughout the design process. While an ideal case scenario would involve the disabled employees as much as possible directly in the design process, this can, realistically, be a challenge. In this paper, we detail a methodological and analytic approach that is centered around ethnography and design fictions. It is designed to provide a deeper understanding of all the stakeholders involved in the scenario while encouraging ethical reflection. Based on our findings, we argue that, while it is relatively easy to adopt an a priori ethical stance through notions such as inclusivity and accessibility, there are risks involved in making such a priori prescriptions with respect to the perspectives of different stakeholders in an applied research project. More specifically, we highlight the importance of understanding the broad organizational and bureaucratic characteristics of a business or workplace when devising HRI scenarios and tasks, and of considering elements such as business models, operating philosophy, and organizational hierarchies in the design process.
The gig-economy relies on intermediation platforms that connect customers with gig-workers. The food delivery eco-system includes four actors: platform, restaurant, courier and customer. It differs from other well-studied "gig" platforms such as Uber or Amazon Mechanical Turk as it brings together a business and a gig-worker. Based on our qualitative study involving couriers and restaurants, we demonstrate that a cooperation is needed between restaurants and couriers to perform food delivery. The way platforms are designed does not support this cooperation as it is affected by the waiting times at the restaurants and the rating system. A dedicated space where both couriers and restaurants could directly give feedback and information could enhance their understanding of the situation and thus enable cooperation.
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