CS124: Investigation 6 (individual)

Interface Agents

Due:
Wednesday, March 25 (part 1), 2:45pm by email
Friday, April 3, 11:55pm by email

This is an individual investigation. You may discuss this investigation with others, but should complete all work on your own.

Goals

The goals of this Investigation are:

To become familiar with an existing agent-based interface
To critically evaluate the utitlity and usability of an existing agent-based interface

Before you Begin

You need a Windows computer to complete this assignment. If you do not have a Windows computer you can borrow one of mine for the next two weeks. Please come by and check one out ASAP.

Assignment

In this assignment you will critically examine an agent-based interface: the Ultra Hal Assistant You will use this agent for at least a week and then write a critique of the advantages and disadvantages of this interface over "traditional" software to accomplish the same task.

Part 1: Download the Software and Start Using It (DO THIS NOW! Deadline: 2:45pm, Wednesday March 25)

Download the free trial version of one of the Ultra Hal Assistant and play with it a little until you understand what it does.

Ultra Hal Assistant is a desktop assistant designed to replace your calendar and all other organizational software.

When you have successfully downloaded and set up the software, send me an email to confirm that you have completed part 1 of the assignment. I must receive this email by class time on Wednesday, or you will not receive full credit on the assignment. Let me know well in advance if you are having trouble (i.e. do this ASAP!).

Part 2: Critiquing the interface

Use the ultra Hal interface regularly for a full week or more in addition to your usual tools (e.g. email and calendar, and any other organizational tool you use). I mean really use it. Use it whenever you would be temped to use another application. For Hal this means putting as much of your scheduling information into it as possible. You should spend a few hours total interacting with your agent. For this agent, you won't really see their true functionality until they "know" a lot of your patterns and information.

Your goal in interacting with this is to form a detailed, dependable opinion about what embodied agents provide the user in this context. As you interact with Hal, keep in mind the following questions (from Interaction Design, by Preece, et al., p. 213):

What does this agent do?
In what way is it an "agent" (as we discussed in class)?
What kind of agent is it? (Anthropomorphic? Assistive? Does it learn?)
Does it elicit an emotional response from you? (If so, what is it?)
What kind of personality does the agent have, if any?
How does the agent express its personality?
How does the agent appear on screen? Is it realistic or cartoon-like?
How does it communicate with the user? Text or speech? Facial expressions? Gestures?
Is the level of discourse appropriate (patronizing or at the right level)?
What advantages does this agent have over the more "traditional" interface?
What is problematic about this interface?
How is the agent nature of the interface appropriate? (I.e., what works in this interface?)
How could this interface be improved?
Do you trust this interface?
How would you rate the quality of the information you receive?

Your goal is to contrast your intereaction with Hal with your interaction with your standard scheduling/organization tools. As you interact with your standard calendar/email/etc tools, think about how your interactions and feelings differ from when you were interacting with Hal. Consider the questions above as well as the following additional questions:

Is it easy to find information?
What role does personalization play? Does personalization affect you here the same way it affected you in the Hal interface?

Part 3: Writeup

Finally you will organize and write up your observations. To break the monotony of the more formal reading responses, this writeup will be a little more whimsical (but you still need to be sure to follow good writing style--see below).

Your task is to write a 2-3 page (single spaced, length is approximate) letter to a relative or friend who is not very tech-savvy, but who is considering what tools they should start using: sep[arate email/calendar programs (e.g., gmail/google calendar) or Ultra Hal Assistant. (If you have no non-tech-savvy friends or relatives, make one up). Your task is to convince him or her which tool(s) will give him or her the best personal experience.

In this letter, you should describe why the interface you have chosen is well-suited to this individual, as well as why the interface you didn't choose is not as well suited. You should include specific characteristics about the person you are writing, as well as specific characteristics about the interface based on your personal interaction with Ultra Hal and your standard tools to justify your claims. Also, you should base your arguments and discussion in the themes outlined above. That is, your arguments should be clearly linked to the themes from this class and be specific, not just random observations that express your own opinions (e.g., don't say something like "gmail is better because I didn't trust the agents in Ultra Hal." Instead articulate why your friend would not trust Ultra Hal--was it something about their speech? The way they gestured? etc.) Finally, if you have chosen not to recommend Ultra Hal, state specifically what would have to be improved such that your friend might consider using it in the future.

Even though this writing assignment is less formal, it should still be well-written. Ensure that you still do the following:

Clearly organize your points and your overall argument.
Use clear, specific evidence to support your position.
Organize each paragraph around a single theme that clearly supports your argument.
Write clearly and concisely. Avoid unnecessary wordiness.
Proofread for spelling and grammatical errors.
Write at least one draft that you do not turn in. Preferably get someone else to read that draft (I am more than happy to be that person, assuming you get it to me several days before the assignment is due). I strongly recommend you take this draft (along with this assignment description) to the writing center a few days before it is due.

As with the reading responses, this investigation is somewhat open-ended, so come seem me if you have questions about what you are supposed to be doing.

What to Hand In

You only need to hand in your writeup, described above in part 3.

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