# Optimizing SIA Development: A Case Study in User-Centered Design for Estuary, a Multimodal Socially Interactive Agent Framework

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.14427 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14427/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 3 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Robust Speech Recognition via Large-Scale Weak Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04356/) (2022)
- [Estuary: A Framework For Building Multimodal Low-Latency Real-Time Socially Interactive Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20116/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This case study presents our user-centered design model for Socially Intelligent Agent (SIA) development frameworks through our experience developing Estuary, an open source multimodal framework for building low-latency real-time socially interactive agents. We leverage the Rapid Assessment Process (RAP) to collect the thoughts of leading researchers in the field of SIAs regarding the current state of the art for SIA development as well as their evaluation of how well Estuary may potentially address current research gaps. We achieve this through a series of end-user interviews conducted by a fellow researcher in the community. We hope that the findings of our work will not only assist the continued development of Estuary but also guide the development of other future frameworks and technologies for SIAs.