(Non-)Interacting with conversational agents: perceptions and motivations of using chatbots and voice assistants

Abstract

Conversational agents (CAs) such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are increasingly penetrating everyday life. From a Human¬–Computer Interaction (HCI) perspective, designing CAs that appropriately support the way they are used within daily life is still challenging. While initial design guide¬lines for human–AI interaction exist, we still know little about how users actually perceive CAs within their daily lives and what as¬pects motivate their usage of such tools. Within our research, we therefore conducted an interview study with 29 participants to uncover daily positive and negative experiences with CAs. By revealing how users currently perceive CAs, we identify quality criteria that could inform their future design. By evaluating these criteria with respect to existing research discourses about user experience (UX) guidelines for CAs, we contribute to the field by extending these guidelines from an end-user’s perspective.