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Alexa depression and anxiety self-tests: a preliminary analysis of user experience and trust

Authors:

Juan C. Quiroz,

Tristan Bongolan,

Kiran IjazAuthors Info & Claims

UbiComp/ISWC '20 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers

Pages 494 - 496

https://doi.org/10.1145/3410530.3414374

Published: 12 September 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Mental health resources available via websites and mobile apps provide support such as advice, journaling, and elements from cognitive behavioral therapy. The proliferation of spoken conversational agents, such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, has led to an increasing interest in developing mental health apps for these devices. We present the pilot study outcomes of an Alexa Skill that allows users to conduct depression and anxiety self-tests. Ten participants were given access to the Alexa Skill for two-weeks, followed by an online evaluation of the Skill's usability and trust. Our preliminary evaluation suggests that participants trusted the Skill and scored the usability and user experience as average. Usage of the Skill was low, with most participants using the Skill only once. In view of work-in-progress, we also present a discussion of implementation and study design challenges to guide the current literature on designing spoken conversational agents for mental health applications.

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Cited By

Shafei HTan C(2024)Enhancing Alexa Skill Testing Through Improved Utterance DiscoveryACM Transactions on Internet Technology10.1145/369820024:4(1-25)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3698200
Wong NJeong SReddy MStamatis CLattie EJacobs M(2024)Voice Assistants for Mental Health Services: Designing Dialogues with Homebound Older AdultsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661536(844-858)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661536
Boian RBucur ATodea DLuca ARebedea TPodina I(2024)A conversational agent framework for mental health screening: design, implementation, and usabilityBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.2332934(1-15)Online publication date: 27-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2332934
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Alexa depression and anxiety self-tests: a preliminary analysis of user experience and trust
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction devices
      1. Sound-based input / output

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cover image ACM Conferences

UbiComp/ISWC '20 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2020 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers

September 2020

732 pages

ISBN:9781450380768

DOI:10.1145/3410530

General Chairs:
Monica Tentori
CICESE, Mexico
,
Nadir Weibel
UC San Diego
,
Kristof Van Laerhoven
University of Siegen, Germany
,
Program Chairs:
Gregory Abowd
Georgia Tech
,
Flora Salim
RMIT, Australia

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Publication History

Published: 12 September 2020

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UbiComp/ISWC '20

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UbiComp/ISWC '20: 2020 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and 2020 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers

September 12 - 17, 2020

Virtual Event, Mexico

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Overall Acceptance Rate 764 of 2,912 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

Shafei HTan C(2024)Enhancing Alexa Skill Testing Through Improved Utterance DiscoveryACM Transactions on Internet Technology10.1145/369820024:4(1-25)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3698200
Wong NJeong SReddy MStamatis CLattie EJacobs M(2024)Voice Assistants for Mental Health Services: Designing Dialogues with Homebound Older AdultsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661536(844-858)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661536
Boian RBucur ATodea DLuca ARebedea TPodina I(2024)A conversational agent framework for mental health screening: design, implementation, and usabilityBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.2332934(1-15)Online publication date: 27-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2332934
Striegl JRottmann SLoitsch C(2024)Effectiveness and Acceptance of Conversational Agent-Based Psychotherapy for Depression and Anxiety Treatment: Methodological Literature ReviewIntelligent Systems and Applications10.1007/978-3-031-66329-1_14(188-203)Online publication date: 31-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66329-1_14
Méndez JMedina APonce PPeffer TMeier AMolina A(2022)Evolving Gamified Smart Communities in Mexico to Save Energy in Communities through Intelligent InterfacesEnergies10.3390/en1515555315:15(5553)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155553
Soubutts EAyobi AEardley RMcNaney RCater KO'Kane A(2022)Amazon Echo Show as a Multimodal Human-to-Human Care Support Tool within Self-Isolating Older UK HouseholdsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551936:CSCW2(1-31)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555193
Maharjan RDoherty KRohani DBækgaard PBardram J(2022)Experiences of a Speech-enabled Conversational Agent for the Self-report of Well-being among People Living with Affective Disorders: An In-the-Wild StudyACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems10.1145/348450812:2(1-29)Online publication date: 20-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3484508
Maharjan RRohani DDoherty KBækgaard PBardram J(2022)What Is the Difference? Investigating the Self-Report of Wellbeing via Conversational Agent and Web AppIEEE Pervasive Computing10.1109/MPRV.2022.314737421:2(60-68)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MPRV.2022.3147374
Méndez JMeza-Sánchez APonce PMcDaniel TPeffer TMeier AMolina A(2021)Smart Homes as Enablers for Depression Pre-Diagnosis Using PHQ-9 on HMI through Fuzzy Logic Decision SystemSensors10.3390/s2123786421:23(7864)Online publication date: 26-Nov-2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/s21237864
Lalitha TSreeja P(2021)Recommendation System Based on Machine Learning and Deep Learning in Varied Perspectives: A Systematic ReviewInformation and Communication Technology for Competitive Strategies (ICTCS 2020)10.1007/978-981-16-0882-7_36(419-432)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0882-7_36
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