Using Agentsheets to Create a Voice Dialog Design Environment

Alex Repenning, Tamara Sumner
Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science Campus Box 430 University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309 (303) 492-1218, ralex@cs.colorado.edu, sumner@cs.colorado.edu Fax: (303) 492-2844

Abstract

Agentsheets is a tool for building interactive, graphical systems. It combines the ease of use of a construction kit with the flexibility of a visual programming environment. Agentsheets uses a grid structure to clarify spatial relationships such as adjacency, relative and absolute position, distance, and orientation. System designers can use the Agentsheets substrate to quickly create tailored, domain-specific graphical applications requiring simulation and spatial representations. The design and implementation of a voice dialog design environment using the Agentsheets substrate is described. By using Agentsheets, a mixed team of professional voice dialog designers and academic researchers were able to design and build a substantial core design environment in less than four months.

Keywords:

agents, agentsheets, construction kits, design, design environments, grids, human-computer interaction, iconic programming environments, object-oriented programming, phone-based interfaces, spatial reasoning, visual programming, voice dialog applications