AT&T Chat ‘N Talk: Getting to Know You... HFWEB June 3, 1999 AT&T Chat ‘N Talk: Getting to Know...

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AT&T Chat ‘N Talk: Getting to Know You...

HFWEB June 3, 1999

AT&T Chat ‘N Talk:Getting to Know You without

Getting to Know All About You

Helen A. Fairbrother

Elizabeth A. Hohne

Steven Todd

User Experience Engineering Division

AT&T Labs

HFWEB June 3, 1999

Overview

AT&T Chat ‘N Talk: What Is It? Usability Issues Lessons Learned

HFWEB June 3, 1999

What Is AT&T Chat ‘N Talk?

HFWEB June 3, 1999

What Is AT&T Chat ‘N Talk? An anonymous voice-enabled chat service

– Chat room participants can move from text chat to voice chat without exchanging phone numbers

A “transitional” web-based communication service– Call set-up occurs on the Web– The voice call is switched through a conference

bridge on the traditional telephone network

A service looking for a market– Is there money in good, clean, anonymous

intimacy?

HFWEB June 3, 1999

Usability Issues

User Model of Call Set-up– Anonymous Calling re-orders call set-up

Shifting gears from text chat to voice chat can be complex– Improved by integration with chat program

Trust– Data privacy at the system and personal

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User Model of Communication Events

First party uses context-appropriate address to initiate communication

Second party is alerted of the communication event

Second party determines whether to engage or not at this point

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Anonymous Chat Flow

First party requests a call Second party consents (or not) Each party enters own phone number Network dials each Each answers or not Conversation ensues

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Usability Issues: Model Violations Users must communicate in advance about the

communication each time Users must share the session password Outcalling surprises the person who “initiates”

the call– The initiator of the call frequently does not recognize

the relationship of the ringing phone to the call setup activity

The time lag between the initial request and the ringing phone may confuse the “called” party

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Usability Issues: Complexity

HFWEB June 3, 1999

Usability Issues: Complexity

Users must navigate between chat windows and call set-up windows– Window management becomes an issue

Integrating with the chat software reduces information user must move around– The session identifier is hidden from the

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Independent Host Flow

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Integrated Flow

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Integrated vs. Independent: Host

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Receiving a Call

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Integrated Advantage

Host– Initial step is more natural: click “Phone”– Invitation to participant is simple and timely– May be done in open chat--instant

message not required

Participant– Click “Phone” to start– Phone number is only data entered

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Usability Issues: Trust

At the personal level– Users are informed that their phone numbers will

not be disclosed– A “decoy” number appears on the bill

• Calls to the number identify the Chat ‘N Talk service

– Caller ID boxes do not display the users’ numbers

At the system level– Links to AT&T Privacy Policy– AT&T reputation for trustworthiness

HFWEB June 3, 1999

Summary

Integrating the two applications lowers the bar for initiating calls– Using the context-appropriate address

minimizes complexity for the user– Reduced need to pass information from

one application to another– Quicker call set up favors call completion

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Summary

Differences in call set-up flow are not entirely removed– Users must still communicate about the

communication before initiating it

Services whose directories contain phone numbers could remove the need for this step

HFWEB June 3, 1999

Summary

The market for anonymous calling may be limited to certain situations– Typing dirty Talking dirty

AT&T Chat ‘N Talk technology supports more than anonymous voice chat– Dialing from online directories (anywho.com)– conference call setup (www.click2dial.att.com)– Phone/instant messaging integration

AT&T Chat ‘N Talk: Getting to Know You... HFWEB June 3, 1999 AT&T Chat ‘N Talk: Getting to Know...

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