Do you care if a computer says sorry?

Abstract

While traditional HCI research emphasizes usability based on models of cognition, user experience (UX) focuses on affect and emotion through the provision of positive interactive experiences. Providing affective cues, such as apologetic on-screen display messages, appears to be a way to influence users' affective states as well as their perceptions toward an information retrieval system. A study was designed to determine whether users' affect and perceptions differ between three types of systems: neutral, apologetic, and non-apologetic. Our results revealed that the users perceived the apologetic system as more aesthetically appealing and usable than the neutral or nonapologetic system. The result also showed that users' frustration was the lowest when using the apologetic system. We discuss the implications of these results in designing a more experience-centered system.

User Preference and Categories for Error Responses in Conversational User Interfaces

“…Tzeng [42] carried out a similar study and the result of the study supported the conclusion that computer apologies can help in creating more desirable experiences. Another study conducted by Park et al [31] explored users' affective states and perceptions towards three different types of error messages in computer interfaces: apologetic, non-apologetic and neutral. The results of this study indicate that users considered the apologetic system as more usable and appealing compared to the neutral or non-apologetic system.…”

“…We do this too and apply components of effective apology in HHI [21] to the generation of candidate error responses. According to Park et al [31], systems that use apologetic error responses are perceived as more usable than systems that do not apologize and are neutral. Hence we decided to include the categories of apology and neutral acknowledgement in our study.…”

“…Automatic emotion recognition is investigated by other HCI researchers [36] and applied in industry [5]. One reason may be that computers that respond to users' negative emotions may alleviate frustration [31,34]. Thus we included the category "Acknowledging user sentiment" in our study.…”