Construction of an Instrument for the Quantitative Assessment of Experience in the Use of Conversational Agents

Abstract

AbstractRelational conversational agents represent a new frontier in human-computer interaction. They can be handy, for example, in interacting with the elderly public. Considering the increase in life expectancy, longevity came to be seen as a gain and a concern for society. The number of older people grows at a more significant proportion than the number of professionals specialized in their care, often causing an overload in the work of these professionals. In this context, we argue that the technology of voice assistants has the potential to become a promising solution to alleviate problems such as the greater demand for care services for the elderly, contributing not only to assisting caregiver’s activities as well as for the recovery of the independence of the elderly. However, the lack of tools for evaluating users’ experiences with these voice interfaces is remarkable, mainly when used by the elderly. Thus, this work contributes to filling this gap, providing as its main contribution an instrument that quantitatively measures the experience obtained by an older user when using a conversational agent. The application of a tool like this can decisively help design and evolve a voice interface. Applying a tool like this can decisively help plan and grow a voice interface. Furthermore, our instrument can help from observing points of improvement in the system to the degree of suitability of the product to the user, being helpful to get validation with the user from the beginning of the development cycle.KeywordsOlder adultsVoice interactionConversational agentsUser experienceEngagementCronbach’s alphaWizard of Oz