The role of spoken feedback in experiencing multimodal interfaces as human-like

ABSTRACT

If user interfaces should be made human-like vs. tool-like has been debated in the HCI field, and this debate affects the development of multimodal interfaces. However, little empirical study has been done to support either view so far. Even if there is evidence that humans interpret media as other humans, this does not mean that humans experience the interfaces as human-like. We studied how people experience a multimodal timetable system with varying degree of human-like spoken feedback in a Wizard-of-Oz study. The results showed that users' views and preferences lean significantly towards anthropomorphism after actually experiencing the multimodal timetable system. The more human-like the spoken feedback is the more participants preferred the system to be human-like. The results also showed that the users experience matched their preferences. This shows that in order to appreciate a human-like interface, the users have to experience it.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Voice I/O

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Natural language; Graphical user interfaces (GUI); Evaluation/methodology

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
Wizard of Oz, anthropomorphism, multimodal interaction, spoken feedback