To:          Students in Psychology 384, Research Methods in Human Factors

From:    Susan Brennan, Tony Weaver

Date:     Thursday, March 12, 2009

Re:          Assignment #6, Dialog Design (due Thursday, March. 19, 2009)

 

Dialogs are structured in several ways. For instance, people have conventions for opening a conversation with a greeting and closing a conversation when they are done. During the body of a conversation, people take turns. A particular turn is usually related to the other turns that precede and follow it. Another form of structure comes from initiative; either party can initiate an action (e.g., ask a question) that the other person then responds to. Conversation is also grounded; that is, people give each other systematic feedback about what they've understood. When there is a problem or error in understanding, they diagnose the problem and cooperate with each other to repair it. In this assignment, you will apply your knowledge about communication to dialog design.

 

When you pick up the telephone to get information these days, you are likely to hear recorded messages that are controlled by a computer. Telephone information dialogs are usually structured somewhat like conversations (e.g., with openings and closing) and somewhat like graphical menus (except that you hear the options instead of seeing them). This assignment has two parts. In the first part, you will analyze the dialog capabilities of a public information interface that provides information over the telephone and draw a flow chart representing the dialog. In the second part, you will propose a new feature that would improve the interface that you analyzed, and then design the dialog component for that feature (add it to your flow chart). Please follow the steps listed next and report your findings in a memo addressed to Susan Brennan and Tony Weaver (you can ask our undergrad TA, Nicole Romano, if you have any questions about your flow chart).  Your memo should include a discussion of the points mentioned below in 2-3 pages, as well as a separate diagram that contains a flow chart of exactly what happened during your dialog.

 

1. Choose an information interface to investigate. Feel free to choose one of your own (such as your bank's automated information about your own checking or credit card account). Here are some additional suggestions: (Or see one of us for additional ideas.)

 

2. You will need a touch-tone telephone.  Call the number of the information service you chose and explore the options thoroughly, step by step. Be sure to take notes as you go. Follow (and write down) several different pathways through the dialog, choosing different options at decision points (you will need to call the number several times in order to get the "big picture"). Test the program to see if you can get into a dead end or unrecoverable error state. Then draw a flow chart using the conventions in Cohen et al., pp. 106 & 232, either by hand or using a drawing program.  Display the messages that you heard to one side of the flow chart, and number them so that we can tell which mesage goes with which state in the flow chart (for example, see the example messages A1, etc. at the end of this memo).

 

3. Document your findings in your memo. The written part should refer to particular steps in your flow chart. Address all of the following questions:

·          How does the system start the dialog? Is there a greeting? What info is initially provided? What information (if any) does the system ask you for?

·          What choices does the system give you? How do you specify a choice? At the end of a set of choices, what happens if you don't choose one?

·          Does the system allow you to easily go back and make another selection, or does it make you start the dialog over again? How easy is it to get back to the immediately previous step?

·          At each choice point in the dialog, how many options are you given at once? Do these seem to be listed in any particular order? Is the dialog broad or deep?

·          Can you make a selection at any time? What happens if you make a selection too early (while the system is still listing choices)? Can you interrupt with a request of your own?

·          What kinds of problems arise? Does the system provide a way to recover from them? Did you reach any dead ends, where you didn't know what to do next? Were you ever surprised?

·          How does the system end the dialog? Was there a real ending, or was it up to you to just hang up anytime?

 

Address all of these questions and summarize your findings in your memo. Also include (as an appendix at the end) a flow chart of all the messages and spoken menu choices that you experienced. You should document each of the system's turns in the dialog, along with your responses and what happens next.

 

4. Finally: Propose a change to the system that you think would make it better. This can be a very small or simple change, or something more substantial. Specify how your change would affect the flow chart you have drawn of your dialog. Then conclude: What do you think of your dialog with this system? Is it easy to use, frustrating, time consuming, etc.? How similar would interacting with this system be to interacting with a person who provides the same information? What are the tradeoffs between using a system like this vs. a person?

 

Here is a partial example of messages recorded from an example spoken dialog system. For the messages in your analysis, place the messages out to one side of your flow chart diagram and label them so that we can tell which message goes with which state (or step) in the system.

 

A1. Hello, this is the phone mail system.

 

A2. You may either enter your extension or your name.
To enter an extension, dial the extension
and then push enter or pound. To enter your name,
dial your last name followed by first name, until recognized.

<pause>

(repeat 3X)

 

A3. If you are entering a name, push stop or star.
When you have finished dialing an extension,
push enter or pound.
If you do not push a key in 5 seconds,
you will be disconnected.

 

B1. you dialed <name> at <extension>

 

B2, If this is correct, dial your password
and then push enter or pound. If not, push stop or star.

 

B3. You may listen to your messages,
record a message,
change your answering options,
change your mailbox options,
transfer out of phone mail, or
disconnect from phonemail.
To listen to your messages, push listen or 3.
To record a message, push record or 1.
To change your answering options, push 8.
To change your mailbox options, push 9.
To transfer out of phone mail, push 7, then 0.
To disconnect from phone mail, push 7, then 6.

<pause>

(repeat 2X)

 

B4. If you need help, push help or zero.

 

C1. You have one new message. (etc.)