The University of Edinburgh

Lay Summary of ThesisLay Summary of ThesisThe lay summary is intended to facilitate knowledge transfer and enhance accessibility, therefore the language used The lay summary is intended to facilitate knowledge transfer and enhance accessibility, therefore the language used should be non-technical and suitable for a general audience. This should be a brief summary.should be non-technical and suitable for a general audience. This should be a brief summary.

Name of Candidate:

Carl Benjamin Simmons

Address :11/4 Cables Wynd

Edinburgh

Postal Code:

EH6 6DU

Degree: Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Title of Thesis:

Usability Design of Embodied Conversational Agents on Handheld Devices

No. of words in the main text of Thesis:

58,311

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) are essentially animated ‘virtual people’ which are able to speak to people and understand their responses. By programming a flowchart of reactions to different things someone might say, it is possible to create a service that simulates the experience of having a conversation with a human being, except the person is actually speaking to a computer. ECAs have previously been shown to be effective as teaching aids; this research looked at using ECAs in a more commercial context in order to provide financial services information to users.

Handheld devices like smartphones and tablets are growing in popularity, and so it is important for the development of ECA services to see how using an ECA on a handheld device is different from using one on a traditional PC setup. This research looked at using a smartphone, tablet and PC to deliver an ECA service to people through a series of experiments that compared different ways of displaying the ECA alongside some written information about the topics being discussed.

It was found from the research that people’s opinions about an ECA service are not affected by the device being used at the time, but they are affected by the way in which the ECA is displayed, and how the ECA speaks to them. As handheld devices get smaller, it is better to emphasise the ECA’s face since people like to see the ECA when text becomes hard to read. People also find it helpful if the ECA asks them questions about their own behaviours or preferences, since it makes the new information being discussed more relatable and easier to understand.

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Regulation 5.8 (c) of the Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study, Regulation 5.8 (c) of the Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study, General Postgraduate Degree Programme

Regulations refers. These regulations are available via: refers. These regulations are available via: http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/..

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Regulation 5.8 (c) of the Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study, Regulation 5.8 (c) of the Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study, General Postgraduate Degree Programme

Regulations refers. These regulations are available via: refers. These regulations are available via: http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/..