Are CUIs Just GUIs with Speech Bubbles?

Abstract

Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs) have become ubiquitous in recent years from mobile assistants like Apple's Siri to standalone products such as the Amazon Echo. However, as we move from established models of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), namely the Graphical User Interface (GUIs) prevalent for several decades to more dynamic, socially aware forms of interaction with technology, namely CUIs, we need to fundamentally rethink how we conduct user research. Simply applying existing methodologies to these new interaction methods will not likely tackle the unique challenges posed by them.