The Effect of Audiences on the User Experience with Conversational Interfaces in Physical Spaces
Abstract
How does the presence of an audience influence the social interaction with a conversational system in a physical space? To answer this question, we analyzed data from an art exhibit where visitors interacted in natural language with three chatbots representing characters from a book. We performed two studies to explore the influence of audiences. In Study 1, we did fieldwork cross-analyzing the reported perception of the social interaction, the audience conditions (visitor is alone, visitor is observed by acquaintances and/or strangers), and control variables such as the visitor's familiarity with the book and gender. In Study 2, we analyzed over 5,000 conversation logs and video recordings, identifying dialogue patterns and how they correlated with the audience conditions. Some significant effects were found, suggesting that conversational systems in physical spaces should be designed based on whether other people observe the user or not.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Knowledge on chatbot use has been gathered for a range of contexts, including the private sphere, at work, and in public spaces.
“In consequence, knowledge on chatbot use has been gathered for a range of contexts—in the private sphere [87], at work [74], and in public spaces [17].”
From Future directions for chatbot research: An interdisciplinary research agenda (2021) · cites this paper as [17]
Cites
Glove: Global Vectors for Word Representation
Pennington, J., Socher, R., & Manning, C. (2014) · Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) · doi:10.3115/v1/d14-1162 · Cited by 34,071 · see citing works
Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions
Fleiss, J. L., Levin, B., & Paik, M. C. (2003) · Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics · doi:10.1002/0471445428 · Cited by 18,646 · see citing works
Least squares quantization in PCM
Lloyd, S. (1982) · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory · doi:10.1109/tit.1982.1056489 · Cited by 15,836 · see citing works
Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models
Gelman, A., & Hill, J. (2006) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511790942 · Cited by 13,597 · see citing works
A tutorial on spectral clustering
von Luxburg, U. (2007) · Statistics and Computing · doi:10.1007/s11222-007-9033-z · Cited by 10,519 · see citing works
The social psychology of telecommunications
Parker, E., Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2065899 · Cited by 6,031 · see citing works
Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research
Attride-Stirling, J. (2001) · Qualitative Research · doi:10.1177/146879410100100307 · Cited by 5,506 · see citing works
The social psychology of telecommunications
Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976) · Cited by 4,435 · see citing works
The Uncanny Valley [From the Field]
Mori, M., MacDorman, K., & Kageki, N. (2012) · IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine · doi:10.1109/mra.2012.2192811 · Cited by 3,542 · see citing works
Parasocial Interaction: A Review of the Literature and a Model for Future Research
Giles, D. C. (2002) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1207/s1532785xmep0403_04 · Cited by 1,245 · see citing works
Luger, E., & Sellen, A. (2016) · Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2858036.2858288 · Cited by 1,176 · see citing works
Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions
(2004) · Technometrics · doi:10.1198/tech.2004.s812 · Cited by 689 · see citing works
Enticing People to Interact with Large Public Displays in Public Spaces.
Brignull, H., & Rogers, Y. (2003) · Cited by 608 · see citing works
Cottrell, N. B., Wack, D. L., Sekerak, G. J., & Rittle, R. H. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025902 · Cited by 456 · see citing works
Short Text Similarity with Word Embeddings
Kenter, T., & de Rijke, M. (2015) · ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) · doi:10.1145/2806416.2806475 · Cited by 452 · see citing works
Designing the spectator experience
Reeves, S., Benford, S., O’Malley, C. L., & Fraser, M. (2005) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1054972.1055074 · Cited by 441 · see citing works
Sharing Clusters among Related Groups: Hierarchical Dirichlet Processes
Teh, Y. W., Jordan, M. I., Beal, M. J., & Blei, D. M. (2004) · Cited by 435 · see citing works
A Conversational Agent as Museum Guide – Design and Evaluation of a Real-World Application
Kopp, S., Gesellensetter, L., Krämer, N. C., & Wachsmuth, I. (2005) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/11550617_28 · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Sproull, L., Subramani, M., Kiesler, S., Walker, J., & Waters, K. (1996) · Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1207/s15327051hci1102_1 · Cited by 399 · see citing works
Audience engagement in multimedia presentations
Webster, J., & Ho, H. (1997) · ACM SIGMIS Database the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems · doi:10.1145/264701.264706 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
"Hey Alexa, What's Up?": A Mixed-Methods Studies of In-Home Conversational Agent Usage
Sciuto, A., Saini, A., Forlizzi, J., & Hong, J. I. (2018) · Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3196709.3196772 · Cited by 327 · see citing works
The effects of animated characters on anxiety, task performance, and evaluations of user interfaces
Rickenberg, R., & Reeves, B. B. (2000) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/332040.332406 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
(2002) · Computer supported cooperative work · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-0277-9 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Robot social presence and gender
Schermerhorn, P., Scheutz, M. J., & Crowell, C. R. (2008) · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) · doi:10.1145/1349822.1349857 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
Cooperating with life-like interface agents
Parise, S., Kiesler, S. B., Sproull, L. S., & Waters, K. (1999) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0747-5632(98)00035-1 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Love, hate, arousal and engagement
Latulipe, C., Carroll, E. A., & Lottridge, D. M. (2011) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1978942.1979210 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
The trouble with friendly faces: Skilled performance with a supportive audience.
Butler, J. L., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.5.1213 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
First Impressions in Human--Agent Virtual Encounters
Cafaro, A., Vilhjálmsson, H. H., & Bickmore, T. (2016) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/2940325 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Strait, M., Vujovic, L., Floerke, V. A., Scheutz, M., & Urry, H. (2015) · International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2702123.2702415 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
The audience effect in adolescence depends on who's looking over your shoulder
Wolf, L. K., Bazargani, N., Kilford, E. J., Dumontheil, I., & Blakemore, S. (2015) · Journal of Adolescence · doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.05.003 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Reeves, S. (2011) · Human-computer interaction series · doi:10.1007/978-0-85729-265-0 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Moore, R. J., Arar, R., Ren, G., & Szymanski, M. H. (2017) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/3027063.3027077 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Intergroup Differentiation in Social Context: Identity Needs versus Audience Constraints
Ellemers, N., van Dyck, C., Hinkle, S., & Jacobs, A. (2000) · Social Psychology Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2695881 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Talking with Conversational Agents in Collaborative Action
Porcheron, M., Fischer, J. E., McGregor, M., Brown, B., Luger, E., Candello, H., & O'Hara, K. (2017) · Companion of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing · doi:10.1145/3022198.3022666 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Self-citationWoods, S. N., Dautenhahn, K., & Kaouri, C. (2005) · IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA) · doi:10.1109/cira.2005.1554254 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Dealing with mobile conversations in public places
Love, S., & Perry, M. (2004) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/985921.986022 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Knowles, E. S. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.6.1263 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Kappen, D. L., Mirza-Babaei, P., Johannsmeier, J., Buckstein, D., Robb, J., & Nacke, L. E. (2014) · Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play · doi:10.1145/2658537.2658687 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Gaze-Based Onlooker Integration
Maurer, B., Aslan, I., Wuchse, M., Neureiter, K., & Tscheligi, M. (2015) · Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play · doi:10.1145/2793107.2793126 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
White, T. E., & Small, D. (1998) · doi:10.1145/286498.286804 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Cox, T., Carter, M., & Velloso, E. (2016) · Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OzCHI) · doi:10.1145/3010915.3010917 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Voice-based Conversational UX Studies and Design
Reeves, S., Porcheron, M., Fischer, J. E., Candello, H. C. D. S. P., McMillan, D., McGregor, M., Moore, R. J., Sikveland, R. O., Taylor, A. S., Velkovska, J., et al. (2018) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/3170427.3170619 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citationEmmerich, K., & Masuch, M. (2018) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3173574.3173674 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Adding an interactive display to a public basketball hoop can motivate players and foster community
Chatham, A. D., & Mueller, F. (2013) · ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) · doi:10.1145/2493432.2493478 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Conversational Bootstrapping and Other Tricks of a Concierge Robot
Guo, S., Lenchner, J., Connell, J., Dholakia, M., & Muta, H. (2017) · Proceedings of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/2909824.3020232 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 47 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Rapp, A., Curti, L., & Boldi, A. (2021) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2021.102630 · Cited by 679 · see citing works
Future directions for chatbot research: An interdisciplinary research agenda
Følstad, A., Araujo, T., Law, E. L.-C., Brandtzaeg, P. B., Papadopoulos, S., Reis, L., Baez, M., Laban, G., McAllister, P., Ischen, C., et al. (2021) · Computing · doi:10.1007/s00607-021-01016-7 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
“In consequence, knowledge on chatbot use has been gathered for a range of contexts—in the private sphere [87], at work [74], and in public spaces [17].”
BackgroundKim, S. (2021) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/20427 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Voice assistants and older people: some open issues
Sayago, S., Neves, B. B., & Cowan, B. R. (2019) · Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces · doi:10.1145/3342775.3342803 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Designing Conversational Agents: A Self-Determination Theory Approach
Yang, X., & Aurisicchio, M. (2021) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3411764.3445445 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Investigating User Expectations on the Roles of Family-shared AI Speakers
Park, S., & Lim, Y.-K. (2020) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3313831.3376450 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Cambre, J., Reig, S., Kravitz, Q., & Kulkarni, C. (2020) · Conference on Designing Interactive Systems · doi:10.1145/3357236.3395479 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Designing Reenacted Chatbots to Enhance Museum Experience
Noh, Y.-G., & Hong, J.-H. (2021) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app11167420 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding User Trust after Voice Assistant Failures
Baughan, A., Wang, X., Liu, A., Mercurio, A., Chen, J., & Ma, X. (2023) · Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3544548.3581152 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“[9] defned failure as occasions in which someone asked a question that could not be understood or was out of scope of the voice assistants’ knowledge, in which case it would divert the conversation to ask an unrelated question.”
BackgroundIntentions, Meanings, and Whys
Barth, F. J., Candello, H. C. D. S. P., Cavalin, P., & Pinhanez, C. S. (2020) · ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) · doi:10.1145/3405755.3406128 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citationChatbot or Chat-Blocker: Predicting Chatbot Popularity before Deployment
Gao, M., Liu, X., Xu, A., & Akkiraju, R. (2021) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3461778.3462147 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Garg, R., Cui, H., & Kapadia, Y. (2021) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3479495 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Candello, H. C. D. S. P., Pichiliani, M. C., Wessel, M. S., Pinhanez, C. S., & Muller, M. J. (2019) · Halfway to the Future Symposium · doi:10.1145/3363384.3363399 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citationCo-designing a conversational interactive exhibit for children
Candello, H. C. D. S. P., Pichiliani, M. C., Pinhanez, C. S., Vidon, S., & Wessel, M. S. (2020) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3397617.3397840 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citationNaturally Together: A Systematic Approach for Multi-User Interaction With Natural Interfaces
Shavitt, C., Kuzminykh, A., Ridel, I., & Cauchard, J. R. (2021) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3476090 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Can direct address affect user engagement with chatbots embodied in physical spaces?
Candello, H. C. D. S. P., Pinhanez, C. S., Pichiliani, M. C., Vasconcelos, M., & Conde, H. (2019) · ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) · doi:10.1145/3342775.3342787 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationApple Siri (input) + Voice Over (output) = a de facto marriage
Sayago, S., & Ribera, M. (2020) · International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAI) · doi:10.1145/3439231.3440603 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
SME-in-the-loop: Interaction Preferences when Supervising Bots in Human-AI Communities
Ashktorab, Z., Desmond, M. J., Johnson, J. M., Pan, Q., Dugan, C., Brachman, M., & Spina, C. (2023) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3563657.3596100 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Supporting the Design of Smart Speakers to Foster a Sense of Ownership in Asian Indian Families
Garg, R. (2022) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3491102.3517680 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
HCI Research Challenges for the Next Generation of Conversational Systems
Pinhanez, C. S. (2020) · ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) · doi:10.1145/3405755.3406153 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationBylieva, D. S., Bekiroğulları, Z., Lobatyuk, V. V., & Anosova, N. (2020) · Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference - Digital Transformation on Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Service · doi:10.1145/3446434.3446540 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Coghlan, S., Waycott, J., Nui, L., Caine, K. E., & Stigall, B. (2021) · Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (OzCHI) · doi:10.1145/3520495.3520512 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
How to Design the Expression Ways of Conversational Agents Based on Affective Experience
Zhang, C., Zhou, R., Zhang, Y., Sun, Y., Zou, L., & Zhao, M. (2020) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49062-1_21 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Guerino, G. C., & Valentim, N. (2020) · Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems (IHC) · doi:10.1145/3424953.3426649 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
The Role of Chatbot Technology in the Cultural Value Proposition
Iodice, G., Clemente, L., & Bifulco, F. (2023) · Advances in marketing, customer relationship management, and e-services book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-6684-9324-3.ch007 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Designing conversational agent(ic) systems
Candello, H. C. D. S. P., & Brachman, M. (2025) · ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) · doi:10.1145/3719160.3728630 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationThe state of voice user interfaces in Latin America
Iñiguez-Carrillo, A. L., Gaytan-Lugo, L. S., Arellano, R. M., García-Ruiz, M. Á., & Aréchiga, D. (2020) · Avances en Interacción Humano-Computadora · doi:10.47756/aihc.y5i1.64 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Rethinking Language Interaction With Pervasive Applications and Devices
Pinhanez, C. S. (2022) · IEEE Pervasive Computing · doi:10.1109/mprv.2022.3191245
Self-citationDASH: Designing and Developing Agentic Systems for Humans (Tutorial)
Brachman, M., Candello, H. C. D. S. P., & da Silveira, A. S. (2026) · ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) · doi:10.1145/3742414.3794949
Self-citationThankachan, B., Akkil, D., Rahman, S., Jokinen, K., & Turunen, M. (2026) · Multimodal Technologies and Interaction · doi:10.3390/mti10030031
Making Creative Technology Workable in Under-Resourced Classrooms
Czech, E., Tabbaa, L., Li, X., Ppali, S., Cullen, Y. M., Ang, C. S., Verma, H., & Covaci, A. (2026) · Creativity and Cognition · doi:10.1145/3803784.3807568
Duong, K., Wright, J., Ahmed, I., Tarkoma, S., Bellucci, A., & Jacucci, G. (2026) · ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) · doi:10.1145/3806774.3827971
- Authors
- Candello, H., Pinhanez, C., Pichiliani, M., Cavalin, P., Figueiredo, F., Vasconcelos, M., & Do Carmo, H.
- Affiliations
- IBM Research - Brazil (BR)
- IBM (Brazil) (BR)
- Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (BR)
- IBM Research Brazil, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2019-05-02
- Pages
- 1-13
- OpenAlex
- W2941541859
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 9.91
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Speech and dialogue systems
- Keywords
- conversational interfaces, audience effects, social interaction, chatbots, physical space, user experience, dialogue patterns, art exhibitions, natural language interaction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
