Development and Evaluation of an Application based on Amazons Alexa to query registered Doctors in Vienna

Aim and Research Question(s)

"How can the developed Alexa skill for querying registered doctors in Vienna be improved in terms of user-friendliness and comprehensibility?" The aim of this thesis was to develop and improve a prototypical skill (=application exclusively for Alexa) for querying information about registered doctors in Vienna. The skill was developed for the digital voice assistant Amazon Alexa and has been tested on a 3rd generation smart speaker Echo Dot. Fig.1:Amazon Alexa Echo Dot 3rd Gen [1]

Background

With voice assistants available on the market, nowadays it is easy to query information from the internet. However, the completeness and quality of the information are not always guaranteed. Therefore, the database [2] of the prototypical skill was provided by “Open Data Austria” which is operated by the “Federal Ministry Republic of Austria for Digital and Economic Affairs”. This was intended to prevent patchy queries based on incomplete data and to provide a qualitative offer for users.

Methods

To increase user-friendliness and acceptance of future users of the skill, the development was carried out during a User-Centered Design Process. The skill was evaluated through usability testing with five different participants, answering open-ended questions in a semi-structured interview and a Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire [3]. The feedback was taken into account in further development and the skill was adapted to the needs of the users.

Results and Discussion

The mean value of the PSSUQ questionnaires was M = 5.3 with a standard deviation SD = 0.8 during the first usability tests and M = 3.5 with a SD = 0.875 during the third tests. Ranging from 1 (strongly agree with positive expression) to 7 (strongly disagree with positive expression). In addition, the evaluation of the questionnaires showed that the continuous improvement increased the acceptance of the skill by the users and more participants wanted to use the skill at that time. Fig.2: Results of all PSSUQ

Conclusion

By considering the feedback from the participants, a clearly improvement in both the mean value in the PSSUQ and the responses to the use of the skill at the time of testing was achieved. Next steps could include incorporating further feedback from users and to make the skill available on other platforms.

References

[1] Amazon, Alexa Echo Dot, 2021. Accessed: Jun. 01,2021 [2] Stadt Wien, Location of Doctors in Vienna, 2020. Accessed: Oct. 26,2020 [3] Epitomist Pte. Ltd., PSSUQ, 2021. Accessed: May 20, 2021