Chasing the Chatbots: Directions for Interaction and Design Research

Big tech-players have been successful in pushing the chatbots forward. Investments in the technology are growing fast, as well as the number of users and applications available. Instead of driving investments towards a successful diffusion of the technology, user-centred studies are currently chasing the popularity of chatbots. A literature analysis evidences how recent this research topic is, and the predominance of technical challenges rather than understanding users’ perceptions, expectations and contexts of use. Looking for answers to interaction and design questions raised in 2007, when the presence of clever computers in everyday life had been predicted for the year 2020, this paper presents a panorama of the recent literature, revealing gaps and pointing directions for further user-centred research

Virtual Assistance in Any Context - A Taxonomy of Design Elements for Domain-Specific Chatbots

Several domain-specific assistants in the form of chatbots have conquered many commercial and private areas. However, there is still a limited level of systematic knowledge of the distinctive characteristics of design elements for chatbots to facilitate development, adoption, implementation, and further research. To close this gap, the paper outlines a taxonomy of design elements for chatbots with 17 dimensions organized into the perspectives intelligence, interaction and context. The conceptually grounded design elements of the taxonomy are used to analyze 103 chatbots from 23 different application domains.Through a clustering-based approach, five chatbot archetypes that currently exist for domain-specific chatbots are identified. The developed taxonomy provides a structure to differentiate and categorize domain-specific chatbots according to archetypal qualities that guide practitioners when taking design decisions. Moreover, the taxonomy serves academics as a foundation for conducting further research on chatbot design while integrating scientific and practical knowledge

Virtual Assistance in Any Context: A Taxonomy of Design Elements for Domain-Specific Chatbots

Several domain-specific assistants in the form of chatbots have conquered many commercial and private areas. However, there is still a limited level of systematic knowledge of the distinctive characteristics of design elements for chatbots to facilitate development, adoption, implementation, and further research. To close this gap, the paper outlines a taxonomy of design elements for chatbots with 17 dimensions organized into the perspectives intelligence, interaction and context. The conceptually grounded design elements of the taxonomy are used to analyze 103 chatbots from 23 different application domains. Through a clustering-based approach, five chatbot archetypes that currently exist for domain-specific chatbots are identified. The developed taxonomy provides a structure to differentiate and categorize domain-specific chatbots according to archetypal qualities that guide practitioners when taking design decisions. Moreover, the taxonomy serves academics as a foundation for conducting further research on chatbot design while integrating scientific and practical knowledge

Towards Intelligent Chatbots for Customer Care - Practice-Based Requirements for a Research Agenda

Chatbots bare a great potential to save efforts and costs in customer care through service automation. Current results are however still at an early stage in functionality and not widely attainable. Here, developing a new form of intelligent chatbots is a current challenge still under review. While there have been numerous proposals for future work, virtually all agenda-setting contributions are solely based on scientific literature. This is unsatisfactory from both an academic and practical perspective, as the industrial view on the future of chatbots seems to be neglected. Therefore, this work explores how professional experts see the future of intelligent chatbots for customer care and suggests how practice can guide research based on an expert panel with 17 industrial partners. Our work identifies research opportunities based on the demands and views of key practitioners by pin-pointing expected trends. Furthermore, based on the expert opinions, we derive guidelines for organizations which state key factors that should be considered in the development or adoption of chatbots in customer care

Toward a linguistically grounded dialog model for chatbot design

The increasing interest in various types of conversational interfaces has been supported by a progressive standardization of the technological frameworks used to build them. However, the landscape of available methodological frameworks for designing conversations is much more fragmented. We propose a highly generalizable methodology for designing conversational flows rooted in a functionalist-pragmatics perspective, with an explicit adherence to a conversationalist approach. In parallel, we elaborate a practical-procedural workflow for undertaking chatbots projects in which we situate the theoretical starting point. At last, we elaborate a general case- study on which we transpose the identified approach in Italian language and using one of the most authoritative NLU platforms

Emerging spaces for language learning: AI bots, ambient intelligence, and the metaverse

Looking at human communication from the perspective of semiotics extends our view beyond verbal language to consider other sign systems and meaning-making resources. Those include gestures, body language, images, and sounds. From this perspective, the communicative process expands from individual mental processes of verbalizing to include features of the environment, the place and space in which the communication occurs. It may be—and it is increasingly the case today—that language is mediated through digital networks. Online communication has become multimodal in virtually all platforms. At the same time, mobile devices have become indispensable digital companions, extending our perceptive and cognitive abilities. Advances in artificial intelligence are enabling tools that have considerable potential for language learning, as well as creating more complexity in the relationship between humans and the material world. In this column, we will be looking at changing perspectives on the role of place and space in language learning, as mobile, embedded, virtual, and reality-augmenting technologies play an ever-increasing role in our lives. Understanding that dynamic is aided by theories and frameworks such as 4E cognition and sociomaterialism, which posit closer connections between human cognition/language and the world around us

The role of attitude toward chatbots and privacy concern on the relationship between attitude toward mobile advertising and behavioral intent to use chatbots.

Abstract Chatbots are technological tools equipped with artificial intelligence that allow companies to interact with their consumers. Through their computers or mobile devices, consumers can use this technology to search for information, make purchases or request after-sales services. This study aims to identify the role of attitude toward chatbots and privacy concern in the relationship between attitude toward mobile advertising and behavioral intent to use chatbots. After reviewing the literature, the study proposes a moderated mediation model. Through a survey, the study shows that attitude toward mobile advertising does not have a direct effect on the behavioral intent to use chatbot, but is rather mediated by one’s attitude toward chatbots. In fact, the interactivity is unidirectional in the case of mobile advertising (from the company to the consumer), but bidirectional in the case of chatbots (in which consumers have an active role in communication). In line with these assumptions, the data analysis shows that internet privacy concerns only negatively moderate the relationship between attitude toward chatbots and behavioral intent to use this technology. These results can be useful for companies and researchers in terms of developing and testing new digital marketing strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results’ theoretical and managerial implications

How to Make chatbots productive – A user-oriented implementation framework

Many organizations are pursuing the implementation of chatbots to enable automation of service processes. However, previous research has highlighted the existence of practical setbacks in the implementation of chatbots in corporate environments. To gain practical insights on the issues related to the implementation processes from several perspectives and stages of deployment, we conducted semi-structured interviews with developers and experts of chatbot development. Using qualitative content analysis and based on a review of literature on human computer interaction (HCI), information systems (IS), and chatbots, we present an implementation framework that supports the successful deployment of chatbots and discuss the implementation of chatbots through a user-oriented lens. The proposed framework contains 101 guiding questions to support chatbot implementation in an eight-step process. The questions are structured according to the people, activity, context, and technology (PACT) framework. The adapted PACT framework is evaluated through expert interviews and a focus group discussion (FGD) and is further applied in a case study. The framework can be seen as a bridge between science and practice that serves as a notional structure for practitioners to introduce a chatbot in a structured and user-oriented manner

Do people want to message chatbots? Developing and comparing the usability of a conversational vs. menu-based chatbot in context of new hire onboarding.

How should people interact with chatbots? This question has become relevant as chatbots grow in recognition within the field of human-computer interaction. Should chatbots strive to have intelligent and realistic conversations with their users? Or, does a simplified, menu-based approach provide the better experience? To answer these questions, a human-centred design process was used to design, develop, and evaluate the usability of two chatbots in context of new hire onboarding. A conversational chatbot with natural language processing was built using Google Dialogflow, while a technology-limited, menu-based chatbot was built with Landbot. 17 participants were split into three groups to perform a qualitative user test, where group 1 tested both bots, group 2 tested only the conversational bot, and group 3 tested only the menu-based bot. Afterwards, all participants were given a quantitative, Likert-scale survey to measure the usability, intelligence, and satisfaction of the chatbots. The results indicate that users preferred a menu-based over a conversational chatbot experience due to its greater ease of use, less likelihood for errors, convenience of graphical user interface elements, and suitability for scenarios where information needs to be provided rather than requested. Conversational chatbot experiences were found to be more convenient when users had direct questions, although they are more complex to implement when compared to menu-based chatbots

DIGITIZING THE CORPOREAL: THE AFFECT OF MEDIATIZED ELEMENTS IN THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE

This paper explores the affect of digital media in live performance. The research is generated from work with integrated digital media in Carol Ann Duffy\u27s 2015 adaptation of Everyman as well as Samuel Beckett\u27s radio play Cascando. Through experimentation and implementation of motion tracking digital elements and actor-manipulated sonic and visual digital media achieved with MIDI and OSC mapping, I explore the embodiment of performances by actors when their various characters are represented on the physical as well as the digital stage simultaneously. The research interrogates digital media in storytelling when actors can manipulate imagery and language in real time on stage and what that means for character and plot in live theatre, the embodiment of physical and virtual representation of character, and evolving storytelling through digital means