"What can I help you with?": infrequent users' experiences of intelligent personal assistants

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Date
2017-09
Authors
Cowan, Benjamin R.
Pantidi, Nadia
Coyle, David
Morrissey, Kellie
Clarke, Peter
Al-Shehri, Sara
Earley, David
Bandeira, Natasha
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Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
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Abstract
Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) are widely available on devices such as smartphones. However, most people do not use them regularly. Previous research has studied the experiences of frequent IPA users. Using qualitative methods we explore the experience of infrequent users: people who have tried IPAs, but choose not to use them regularly. Unsurprisingly infrequent users share some of the experiences of frequent users, e.g. frustration at limitations on fully hands-free interaction. Significant points of contrast and previously unidentified concerns also emerge. Cultural norms and social embarrassment take on added significance for infrequent users. Humanness of IPAs sparked comparisons with human assistants, juxtaposing their limitations. Most importantly, significant concerns emerged around privacy, monetization, data permanency and transparency. Drawing on these findings we discuss key challenges, including: designing for interruptability; reconsideration of the human metaphor; issues of trust and data ownership. Addressing these challenges may lead to more widespread IPA use.
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Keywords
Speech interfaces , User experience , Trust , Privacy , Intelligent Personal Assistants
Citation
Cowan, B. R., Pantidi, N., Coyle, D., Morrissey, K., Clarke, P., Al-Shehri, S., Earley, D. and Bandeira, N. (2017) '"What can I help you with?": infrequent users' experiences of intelligent personal assistants', MobileHCI '17: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, Vienna, Austria, 4-7 September, Article 43 (12pp). doi: 10.1145/3098279.3098539
Copyright
© 2017, Association for Computing Machinery. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in MobileHCI '17: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services: https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3098279.3098539