Modelling Usability Development Methods for Dialogue Systems
Joris Hulstijn · University of Twente Research Information · 1999
This paper reviews the modelling needed in the development of dialogue systems. An iterative and user-centred development method is adapted for dialogue systems. It is shown how formal models can ground the analysis, design and evaluation e#orts. The paper gives a characterisation of dialogue properties which are argued to be related to the usability of dialogue systems: e#ectiveness, cooperativity, e#ciency and a number of properties that have to do with coherence. 1 Introduction Designing a usable dialogue system is still considered an art. Current texts on dialogue system development are based on `best practice' [ Gibbon et al., 1998; Bernsen et al., 1997 ] . It seems we lack a formal theory of dialogue that can be applied in the specification and evaluation of dialogue systems. Existing linguistic, philosophical or AI theories of dialogue are not directly applicable to a `dialogue engineer'. Dialogue theories are di#cult to learn, and di#cult to apply in practice. Dialo...