Evaluation of an Integrated Authoring Tool for Building Advanced Question-Answering Characters.

We present the evaluation of an integrated authoring tool for rapid prototyping of dialogue systems. These dialogue systems are designed to support virtual humans engaging in advanced question-answering dialogues, such as for training tactical questioning skills. The tool was designed to help non-experts, who may have little or no knowledge of linguistics or computer science, build virtual characters that can play the role of an interviewee. The tool has been successfully used by several different non-experts to create a number of virtual characters used successfully for both training and human subjects testing. We report on experiences with seven such characters, whose development time was as little as two weeks including concept development and a round of user testing.