Where is the Bot in our Team? Toward a Taxonomy of Design Option Combinations for Conversational Agents in Collaborative Work

With rapid progress in machine learning, language technologies and artificial intelligence, conversational agents (CAs) gain rising attention in research and practice as potential non-human teammates, facilitators or experts in collaborative work. However, designers of CAs in collaboration still struggle with a lack of comprehensive understanding of the vast variety of design options in the dynamic field. We address this gap with a taxonomy to help researchers and designers understand the design space and the interrelations of different design options and recognize useful design option combinations for their CAs. We present the iterative development of a taxonomy for the design of CAs grounded in state of the art literature and validated with domain experts. We identify recurring design option combinations and white spots from the classified objects that will inform further research and development efforts

Affect and Social Processes in Online Communication- Experiments with an Affective Dialog System

Abstract—This paper presents an integrated view on a series of experiments conducted with an affective dialog system, applied as a tool in studies of emotions and social processes in online communication. The different realizations of the system are evaluated in three experimental setups in order to verify effects of affective profiles, as well as of fine-grained communication scenarios on users’ expressions of affective states, experienced emotional changes, and interaction patterns. Results demonstrate that the system applied in virtual reality settings matches a Wizard-of-Oz in terms of chatting enjoyment, dialog coherence and realism. Variants of the system’s affective profile significantly influence the rating of chatting enjoyment and an emotional connection. Self-reported emotional changes experienced by participants during an interaction with the system are in line with the type of applied profile. Analysis of interaction patterns, i.e., usage of particular dialog act classes, word categories, and textual expressions of affective states for different scenarios, demonstrates that a communication scenario for social sharing of emotions was successfully established. The experimental evidence provides valuable input for applications of affective dialog systems and strengthens them as valid tools for studying affect and social aspects in online communication. Index Terms—Affective dialog system, human-computer interaction, affect sensing and analysis, structuring affective interactions.

Design de Usabilidade em Interfaces Conversacionais Híbridas

Esta dissertação retrata essencialmente o design de usabilidade em Interfaces Conversacionais que permitem ao utilizador interagir através de linguagem natural. Estas interfaces apesar de evoluírem de forma constante e apresentarem uma maior tendência em relação à adesão por parte de empresas de tecnologia, expõem ainda diversos problemas e limitações no que diz respeito à usabilidade.Assim, o desafio da presente dissertação envolve a aplicação de e-commerce Shelf AI, desenvolvida pela Xarevision, que permite ao utilizador realizar compras, procurando o produto através de texto, voz ou código de barras. Apesar de ser possível a pesquisa por voz, esta não inclui a capacidade de o utilizador interagir através de um diálogo natural. Posto isto, o objetivo passa por transformar a Shelf AI numa interface conversacional híbrida, onde o utilizador tenha a possibilidade de interagir de forma híbrida, ou seja, por voz e por toque/texto.No caso de interfaces conversacionais, a usabilidade depende maioritariamente do fluxo de diálogo, ou seja, de como o utilizador interage com o sistema através de linguagem natural. O processo de design foca-se principalmente no fluxo de diálogo, onde é necessário compreender o utilizador, existir uma compreensão clara dos fatores humanos assim como outros fatores que possam interferir negativamente com a usabilidade do sistema. Tendo em conta que a Shelf AI está a ser convertida numa interface híbrida, foram deliniadas novas funcionalidades que conduziram à alteração ou novas modificações em relação à componente gráfica assim como a conversacional.This dissertation portrays essentially the usability design in Conversational Interfaces that allows the user to interact via natural language. Even though these interfaces evolve steadily and present a greater tendency in relation to accession by technology companies, there are still several problems and limitations when it comes to usability.Thus, the challenge of this dissertation involves the application of e-commerce Shelf AI, developed by Xarevision, which allows the user to make purchases, look for the product via text, voice or barcode. Although it is possible to search by voice, this does not include the ability for the user to interact through a natural dialogue. Having said that, the goal is to turn the Shelf AI into a hybrid conversational interface, where the user has the possibility to interact in hybrid form, i.e. by touch and voice/text.In the case of conversational interfaces, usability depends on mostly dialog flow, which is how the user interacts with the system through natural language. The design process focuses mainly on the dialog flow, where it is necessary to understand the user, a clear understanding of human factors as well as other factors that may interfere negatively with the usability of the system. Taking into account that the Shelf AI is being converted into a hybrid interface, new features were defined which led to the amendment or new modifications in relation to the graphic component as well as conversational