Usability Questionnaires to Evaluate Voice User Interfaces

Abstract

Voice user interfaces (VUI) have been increasingly used in everyday settings and they are growing in popularity. These interfaces have predominantly eyes-free and hands-free interactions. This kind of experiences continues to be an inceptive field compared to other input methods such as touch or using the keyboard/mouse. Thus, it is important to identify tools used to evaluate the usability of VUIs. This article presents a systematic review, in which we analyzed 57 articles and describes nine questionnaires used for evaluating the usability of VUIs, assessing the potential suitability of these questionnaires to measure different types of interactions and various usability dimensions. We found that these questionnaires were used to evaluate the usability of voice-only and voice-added VUIs: AttrakDiff, ICF-US, MOS-X, SUISQ-R, SUS, SASSI, UEQ, PARADISE and USE, where the SUS questionnaire is the most commonly used. However, its items do not directly assess voice quality, although it evaluates the general user interaction with a system. All the questionnaires include items related to three usability dimensions (effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction). The questionnaire with the most homogeneous coverage regarding the number of items in each aspect of usability is the SASSI questionnaire. It is a normal practice to use multiple questionnaires to obtain a more complete measurement of usability. We perceive the necessity to increase usability research about the differences between the voice interaction with diverse display types (voice-first, voice-only, voice-added) and the dialog types (command-based and conversational), and how usability affects the user expectations about the VUIs.