Two faces of spoken dialogue systems

This paper is intended as a basis for discussion. We propose that users may, knowingly or subconsciously, interpret the events that occur when interacting with spoken dialogue systems in more than one way. Put differently, there is more than one metaphor people may use in order to make sense of spoken human-computer dialogue. We further suggest that different metaphors may not play well together. The analysis is consistent with many observations in human-computer interaction and has implications that may be helpful to researchers and developers alike. For example, developers may want to guide users towards a metaphor of their choice and ensure that the interaction is coherent with that metaphor; researchers may need different approaches depending on the metaphor employed in the system they study; and in both cases one would need to have very good reasons to use mixed metaphors.