UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance, Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Dec 21;23(12):e31737. doi: 10.2196/31737.
Virtual assistants can be used to deliver innovative health programs that provide appealing, personalized, and convenient health advice and support at scale and low cost. Design characteristics that influence the look and feel of the virtual assistant, such as visual appearance or language features, may significantly influence users' experience and engagement with the assistant.
This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the experimental research examining how design characteristics of virtual health assistants affect user experience, summarize research findings of experimental research examining how design characteristics of virtual health assistants affect user experience, and provide recommendations for the design of virtual health assistants if sufficient evidence exists.
We searched 5 electronic databases (Web of Science, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and ACM Digital Library) to identify the studies that used an experimental design to compare the effects of design characteristics between 2 or more versions of an interactive virtual health assistant on user experience among adults. Data were synthesized descriptively. Health domains, design characteristics, and outcomes were categorized, and descriptive statistics were used to summarize the body of research. Results for each study were categorized as positive, negative, or no effect, and a matrix of the design characteristics and outcome categories was constructed to summarize the findings.
The database searches identified 6879 articles after the removal of duplicates. We included 48 articles representing 45 unique studies in the review. The most common health domains were mental health and physical activity. Studies most commonly examined design characteristics in the categories of visual design or conversational style and relational behavior and assessed outcomes in the categories of personality, satisfaction, relationship, or use intention. Over half of the design characteristics were examined by only 1 study. Results suggest that empathy and relational behavior and self-disclosure are related to more positive user experience. Results also suggest that if a human-like avatar is used, realistic rendering and medical attire may potentially be related to more positive user experience; however, more research is needed to confirm this.
There is a growing body of scientific evidence examining the impact of virtual health assistants' design characteristics on user experience. Taken together, data suggest that the look and feel of a virtual health assistant does affect user experience. Virtual health assistants that show empathy, display nonverbal relational behaviors, and disclose personal information about themselves achieve better user experience. At present, the evidence base is broad, and the studies are typically small in scale and highly heterogeneous. Further research, particularly using longitudinal research designs with repeated user interactions, is needed to inform the optimal design of virtual health assistants.
虚拟助手可用于提供创新的健康计划，以吸引人、个性化和便捷的方式提供大规模、低成本的健康建议和支持。影响虚拟助手外观和感觉的设计特点，如视觉外观或语言特征，可能会显著影响用户对助手的体验和参与度。
本范围综述旨在概述实验研究，以了解虚拟健康助手的设计特点如何影响用户体验，总结实验研究的研究结果，以了解虚拟健康助手的设计特点如何影响用户体验，并为虚拟健康助手的设计提供建议，如果有足够的证据。
我们搜索了 5 个电子数据库（Web of Science、MEDLINE、Embase、PsycINFO 和 ACM 数字图书馆），以确定使用实验设计比较 2 个或更多版本的交互式虚拟健康助手之间设计特点差异对成年人用户体验影响的研究。数据以描述性方式进行综合。对健康领域、设计特点和结果进行分类，并使用描述性统计数据总结研究结果。对每项研究的结果进行分类为积极、消极或无影响，并构建设计特点和结果类别矩阵以总结研究结果。
数据库搜索在去除重复项后共确定了 6879 篇文章。我们共纳入 48 篇文章，其中包含 45 项独立研究。最常见的健康领域是心理健康和身体活动。研究最常考察视觉设计或会话风格和关系行为等设计特点类别，并评估个性、满意度、关系或使用意向等结果类别。超过一半的设计特点仅由 1 项研究进行了考察。结果表明，同理心和关系行为以及自我披露与更积极的用户体验相关。结果还表明，如果使用类人型头像，逼真的渲染和医疗服装可能与更积极的用户体验相关；然而，需要进一步的研究来证实这一点。
目前有越来越多的科学证据研究虚拟健康助手的设计特点对用户体验的影响。总的来说，数据表明虚拟健康助手的外观确实会影响用户体验。表现出同理心、展示非语言关系行为并披露自身个人信息的虚拟健康助手能获得更好的用户体验。目前，证据基础广泛，且研究通常规模较小且高度异质。需要进一步的研究，特别是使用具有重复用户交互的纵向研究设计，以告知虚拟健康助手的最佳设计。
