Failing with Grace: Exploring the Role of Repair Costs in Conversational Breakdowns with in-Car Voice Assistants

• Published in: International journal of human-computer interaction Vol. 40; no. 22; pp. 7574 - 7592
• Main Authors: Meck, Anna-Maria, Draxler, Christoph, Vogt, Thurid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Norwood Taylor & Francis 16.11.2024; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
• Subjects: Conversational user interfaces; Error analysis; error handling; Handling; Human-computer interface; in-car voice assistants
• ISSN: 1044-7318; 1532-7590; 1044-7318
• DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2023.2266791

Technological advancements over the past years have led to a leap in Conversational User Interface (CUI) performance. However, interactions with CUIs are not error-free and error handling thus plays a crucial role in CUI design. So far, CUI repair strategies oftentimes neglect what is known from Human-Human Interaction (HHI). The present work borrows from human-centered error handling and applies the principle of Least Collaborative Effort to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). A within-subjects WoZ driving simulator study (n = 48) is conducted to examine user preferences qualitatively and quantitatively for seven error handling strategies in an automotive setting. Our findings show that human-centered repair strategies comply with the principle of Least Collaborative Effort and lead to significantly lower repair costs than a classic HCI error handling strategy. These results introduce costs as a measurement tool for examining strategy preferences when repairing erroneous dialogs and offer assistance for designing user-centric error handling strategies.