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Conversational-linguistic politeness parameters for chatbot design: a card-based approach

Published: 18 December 2024 Publication History

Resumo

Despite their popularity, chatbots frequently struggle to meet user’s expectations by providing appropriate responses, accurately understanding inquiries, and engaging in natural dialogue. Previous research has shown that incorporating linguistic and conversational strategies, particularly those regarding politeness, can significantly enhance user satisfaction and interaction quality. However, current conversation design practices often lack well-defined approaches to support such strategies and force designers to rely on personal preferences. To improve the process of designing polite chatbots, scholars have examined politeness parameters, which aid in understanding the manifestation of politeness in chatbot dialogues through language function variability and the use of indirectness. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of these politeness parameters in supporting designers during conversational design scenarios. Three scenarios were created, each with dialogues between a chatbot and users featuring distinct conversational intentions and politeness parameters. Participants with diverse backgrounds evaluated each dialogue by identifying strategies and intentions and assessing their level of politeness. The main findings indicate that participants could identify different strategies, evaluate politeness, and comprehend the designer’s intent. However, the parameters proved to be impractical for designers without a linguistic background. Therefore, the study introduces a card-based approach to facilitate and guide the design of polite conversational agents.

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cover image ACM Other conferences
IHC '24: Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems
October 2024
1070 pages
ISBN:9798400712241
DOI:10.1145/3702038
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Published: 18 December 2024

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Author Tags

  1. Chatbot
  2. Culture
  3. Politeness
  4. Indirectness
  5. Conversation Analysis
  6. Card

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