EVALUATION OF AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC USER INTERFACE IN A TELEPHONE BIDDING CONTEXT AND AFFORDANCES
Pietro Murano, Patrik O · 2010
Various researchers around the world have been investigating the use of anthropomorphism in some form at the user interface. Some key issues involve determining whether such a medium is effective and liked by users. Discovering conclusive evidence in relation to this medium would help user interface designers produce better user interfaces. Currently conclusive evidence is lacking. However the authors of this paper have been investigating these issues for some time and this paper presents the results of an experiment which tested anthropomorphic voices against neutral voices. This was in the context of telephone bidding. The results indicated the impersonal human voice condition to foster higher bids, while the user satisfaction was inconclusive across all four conditions tested. The results have also been examined in terms of the Theory of Affordances with the aim of finding an explanation for the observed results. The results indicate that issues of affordances played a part in the results observed.