We present two empirical studies to investigate users’ expectations and behaviours when using digital assistants, such as Alexa and Google Home, in a kitchen context: First, a survey (N = 200) queries participants on their expectations for the kinds of information that such systems should be able to provide. While consensus exists on expecting information about cooking steps and processes, younger participants who enjoy cooking express a higher likelihood of expecting details on food history or the science of cooking. In a follow-up Wizard-of-Oz study (N = 48), users were guided through the steps of a recipe either by an active wizard that alerted participants to information it could provide or a passive wizard who only answered questions that were provided by the user. The active policy led to almost double the number of conversational utterances and 1.5 times more knowledge-related user questions compared to the passive policy. Also, it resulted in 1.7 times more knowledge communicated than the passive policy. We discuss the findings in the context of related work and reveal implications for the design and use of such assistants for cooking and other purposes such as DIY and craft tasks, as well as the lessons we learned for evaluating such systems.

我们提出了两项​​实证研究来调查用户在厨房环境中使用数字助理（例如 Alexa 和 Google Home）时的期望和行为：首先，一项调查 (N = 200) 询问参与者对此类信息类型的期望。系统应该能够提供。虽然人们普遍期望获得有关烹饪步骤和过程的信息，但喜欢烹饪的年轻参与者表示更有可能期望获得有关食物历史或烹饪科学的详细信息。在后续的 Wizard-of-Oz 研究中（N = 48），用户通过主动向导（提醒参与者其可以提供的信息）或被动向导（仅回答所提供的问题）来完成菜谱的步骤。由用户。与被动策略相比，主动策略导致的对话数量几乎增加了一倍，与知识相关的用户问题增加了 1.5 倍。此外，它传达的知识量是被动策略的 1.7 倍。我们在相关工作的背景下讨论了这些发现，并揭示了此类助手在烹饪和其他目的（例如 DIY 和手工任务）的设计和使用方面的影响，以及我们在评估此类系统时学到的经验教训。