The Cuteness Factor: An Interpretive Framework for Artists, Designers and Engineers

Cuteness in design can brighten our daily lives by bringing feelings of joy, comfort, and healing to our experiences. Previous HCI works have explored how cuteness can be leveraged to create more joyful user experiences across a variety of technologies, for example, in the design of cute interfaces for AI agents and the cute physical and behavioral aspects of robots. These works rely on the "Baby Schema" identified by ethologist Konrad Lorenz to apply cuteness as a decoration. This pictorial explores ways that artists and designers can contribute their cultural and aesthetic understandings of cuteness to create richer interactive experiences. Our interpretive framework serves as a provocation for discussing the value of style in the design of interactive systems, and provides guidance for defining cuteness building blocks to support interdisciplinary teams of artists, designers and engineers in the creation of cute user experiences.