Introduction to this special issue: guiding the conversation: new theory and design perspectives for conversational user interfaces

Abstract

The increased popularity of CUIs has motivated HCI work around specific approaches to research, design, and implementation, while also reflecting on these topics. However, current research is highly fragmented and lacks critical mass around topics such as theory, methods and design. Building this critical mass is a fundamentally multidisciplinary endeavour. CUIs involve language based interaction, either through speech or text, with another agent(s) or device(s). This type of interaction not only needs to engage with traditional HCI approaches, but also to embrace methods from communicative and social sciences. This is crucial for making progress towards human-centred conversational interfaces. Along with the recent ACM SIGCHI Conversational User Interfaces conference (ACM CUI), this special issue showcases research to further solidify the foundations of the field in these areas. Below we outline some key challenges faced by the field, describe the papers in this special issue, and then outline areas for future research.