Fake it and Let Them Make it: Combining Wizard-of-Oz and Rapid Prototyping Tools for a Holistic Co-Design of Conversational User Interfaces

Abstract

Developing and evaluating chatbots can be a costly and resource-intensive endeavor, often only addressing the preferences of final stakeholders at the very late stage. This paper presents an innovative approach that leverages chatbot simulations within a co-design framework to involve users early on. The proposed methodology aims to enable comprehensive evaluation of chatbot aspects without the need for users to download an app. The integration of a Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) tool with WidgetExplorer, our proposed chatbot prototyping and evaluation tool, is introduced as a platform for rapid prototyping and user-centered evaluation. This iterative process facilitates contextual conversations, reflection, and dynamic adjustments to the dialog flow and its appearance. Furthermore, the paper presents the incorporation of visual UI components using AdaptiveCards Designer. Using this approach could lead to improving efficiency, inclusivity, and transparency in chatbot design and evaluation.