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Interacting with the News Through Voice User Interfaces

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Chatbot Research and Design (CONVERSATIONS 2022)

Abstract

A key application area for voice user interfaces (VUIs) is news consumption, and there is a need to explore how such interactions are performed in practice. This paper presents a study exploring how novice users navigate the news through VUIs and what interactions point to users’ expectations beyond the VUIs’ current capabilities. A field trial with seven participants in five households and follow-up in-depth interviews with six of the participants were conducted. The analysis provides a detailed picture of how such interactions are practically accomplished and offers insights into the participants’ perspectives on their experiences. The participants had some expectations when interacting with the news through VUIs, but many of these were not met. This paper identifies three key challenges: 1) lack of interactional guidance in news contexts, 2) limited navigation capabilities in news sources, and 3) insufficient support for in-depth exploration of the news, with accompanying design implications for more engaging interactions with VUIs for news purposes.

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Correspondence to Oda Elise Nordberg .

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Nordberg, O.E., Guribye, F. (2023). Interacting with the News Through Voice User Interfaces. In: Følstad, A., et al. Chatbot Research and Design. CONVERSATIONS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13815. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25581-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25581-6_2

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