‘More like a person than reading text in a machine’: Characterizing User Choice of Embodied Agents vs. Conventional GUIs on Smartphones

Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) provide an interface modality on smartphones that may be particularly effective for tasks with significant social, affective, reflective, and narrative aspects, such as health education and behavior change counseling. However, the conversational medium is significantly slower than conventional graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for brief, time-sensitive tasks.