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Listening to the Voices: Describing Ethical Caveats of Conversational User Interfaces According to Experts and Frequent Users

Thomas Mildner, Orla Cooney, Anna-Maria Meck, Marion Bartl, Gian-Luca Savino, Philip R. Doyle, Diego Garaialde, Leigh Clark, John Sloan, Nina Wenig, Rainer Malaka, Jasmin Niess

TL;DR

The paper investigates ethical caveats in conversational user interfaces (CUIs) by interviewing researchers, practitioners, and frequent users to identify five core themes: Building Trust and Guarding Privacy, Guiding Through Interactions, Human-like Harmony, Inclusivity and Diversity, and Setting Expectations. It introduces the CUI Expectation Cycle (CEC), a framework that links these themes to the gap between user expectations and system capabilities, guided by Norman's action cycle and Oliver's Expectation Confirmation Theory. Through qualitative analysis and retrospective application to contemporary work, the study demonstrates how ethical considerations, transparency, and inclusivity can mitigate deceptive or harmful interactions and improve user experience. The contributions offer a structured, theory-informed approach to design ethically aligned CUIs and provide actionable guidance for researchers and practitioners to address diverse user needs and expectations in real-world deployments.

Abstract

Advances in natural language processing and understanding have led to a rapid growth in the popularity of conversational user interfaces (CUIs). While CUIs introduce novel benefits, they also yield risks that may exploit people's trust. Although research looking at unethical design deployed through graphical user interfaces (GUIs) established a thorough understanding of so-called dark patterns, there is a need to continue this discourse within the CUI community to understand potentially problematic interactions. Addressing this gap, we interviewed 27 participants from three cohorts: researchers, practitioners, and frequent users of CUIs. Applying thematic analysis, we construct five themes reflecting each cohort's insights about ethical design challenges and introduce the CUI Expectation Cycle, bridging system capabilities and user expectations while considering each theme's ethical caveats. This research aims to inform future development of CUIs to consider ethical constraints while adopting a human-centred approach.

Listening to the Voices: Describing Ethical Caveats of Conversational User Interfaces According to Experts and Frequent Users

TL;DR

The paper investigates ethical caveats in conversational user interfaces (CUIs) by interviewing researchers, practitioners, and frequent users to identify five core themes: Building Trust and Guarding Privacy, Guiding Through Interactions, Human-like Harmony, Inclusivity and Diversity, and Setting Expectations. It introduces the CUI Expectation Cycle (CEC), a framework that links these themes to the gap between user expectations and system capabilities, guided by Norman's action cycle and Oliver's Expectation Confirmation Theory. Through qualitative analysis and retrospective application to contemporary work, the study demonstrates how ethical considerations, transparency, and inclusivity can mitigate deceptive or harmful interactions and improve user experience. The contributions offer a structured, theory-informed approach to design ethically aligned CUIs and provide actionable guidance for researchers and practitioners to address diverse user needs and expectations in real-world deployments.

Abstract

Advances in natural language processing and understanding have led to a rapid growth in the popularity of conversational user interfaces (CUIs). While CUIs introduce novel benefits, they also yield risks that may exploit people's trust. Although research looking at unethical design deployed through graphical user interfaces (GUIs) established a thorough understanding of so-called dark patterns, there is a need to continue this discourse within the CUI community to understand potentially problematic interactions. Addressing this gap, we interviewed 27 participants from three cohorts: researchers, practitioners, and frequent users of CUIs. Applying thematic analysis, we construct five themes reflecting each cohort's insights about ethical design challenges and introduce the CUI Expectation Cycle, bridging system capabilities and user expectations while considering each theme's ethical caveats. This research aims to inform future development of CUIs to consider ethical constraints while adopting a human-centred approach.
Paper Structure (47 sections, 1 figure, 4 tables)

This paper contains 47 sections, 1 figure, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Design and Technology-based Limitations
  4. Summary of Dark Patterns
  5. Guidelines & Best-Practices
  6. Method
  7. Interview Protocol
  8. Participants
  9. Researchers
  10. Practitioners
  11. Frequent Users
  12. Thematic Analysis
  13. Positionality
  14. Coding of the Transcripts and Identifying Themes
  15. Findings
  16. ...and 32 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: The CUI Expectation Cycle demonstrates how an expectation gap between user and system can be bridged by an evaluation and an execution bridge, inspired by Normans' two evaluation and execution gulfs norman_design_2013. However, deceptions can impact how users assess the system's capabilities, resulting in unrealistic expectations. Similarly, distrust limits users' faith in the system and its responses, influencing their execution of actions. Both delimiting factors can be of extrinsic as well as intrinsic nature. The diagram further features the five themes and connects them to respective sections of the CUI Expectation Cycle.