Improving Non-Native Speakers’ Participation with an Automatic Agent
Context
At NTT Technology Labs in Japan, I had the opportunity to create a conversational robot to enhance multilingual communication.
Previous solutions failed because they did not fully account for the complexities of group dynamics.
After conducting thorough research, I proposed a novel approach that diverged significantly from prior work to design the robot.
I led a controlled experiment with 48 participants to test the robot, which showed it increased participation by 40%.
What Did I do?
Collaborated with a cross-functional team to design a conversational robot, increasing participation of Non-Native speakers by 40%.
Designed quantitative experiments, created Qualtrics surveys and proved the effect of the conversational robot.
Conducted in-depth user interviews and generated actionable design recommendations to inform future iterations.
Published and presented ACM research article, which led to interdisciplinary discussion and news coverage.
More details about this project.
Impact
Increased participation of Non-Native speakers by 40% .
Research insights directly employed to develop a new generation of conversational agent.
Reached wider audience through presentations at a large ACM conference, news coverage, and podcast.
Goals
Use technology to facilitate more balanced communication in multilingual groups.
Prove the effectiveness of the technology with quantitative experiments.
Gather user feedback with in-depth, qualitative interviews to inform the design of future platforms.