Int. J. Human-Computer Studies 64 (2006) 1084–1098 The use of interface agents for email notification in critical incidents Alexander Serenko à Faculty of Business Administration, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada P7B 5E1 Received 16 November 2005; accepted 15 June 2006 Communicated by C. Sierra Available online 7 August 2006 Abstract This study reports on several typical scenarios of the use of email notification interface agents under the influence of critical incidents. An interface agent is a reactive, collaborative, and autonomous visual computational system, which communicates directly with a person offering assistance and advice in performing computer-related tasks. The critical incident technique was employed to survey the actual users of an interface agent-based email notification application. Respondents were asked to provide the last most significant either positive or negative incident of the usage of interface agents in their email application. They were also asked to offer recommendations for designers and marketers of this technology. Sixty critical incidents were obtained and analysed. With regards to positive-outcome situations, one representative scenario was constructed. With respect to the negative-outcome events, three distinct scenarios were identified. Based on the critical incident technique, it is concluded that users acknowledge the quality of an agent when it acts reliably, an agent’s intrusive behaviour results in an immediate agent usage termination, operability issues sometimes force people to reject the technology, and users attempt to preserve the employment of an agent under the negative impacts of external factors. A number of other practical recommendations for manufacturers and marketers are also outlined. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Interface agents; Human–agent interaction; Email notification; Critical incident technique 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individuals use interface agents for email notification in their electronic mail applications under the influence of critical incidents and to offer recommendations for designers and marketers of this technology. An interface agent for email notification is a reactive and continuous visual computational system that keeps track of the current state of an email application and informs users about any changes, for example, the arrival of a new, important message. As any other type of an interface agent, it is in charge of interacting with the user; it should directly communicate with the person through the input and output of the user interface (Laurel, 1997; Lieberman and Selker, 2003; Detlor, 2004; Serenko et al., 2006). Email notification agents add graphics or animation to the interface, use speech input and output, and communicate via other sensory devices. Interface agents for email notification differ from autonomous agents or multi-agent systems (Jennings et al., 2000; Wooldridge, 2002) in that their goal is to serve as an interface to an already existing software system rather than automate complex or repetitive tasks working in the background and communicating with other agents. One of the most salient reasons for incorporating interface agents in email systems is their ability to transform the way people utilize this text-based computer telecommunications medium. As reflected by the extensive number of research projects in this area, there has been a strong interest in incorporating interface agents in email applications in the last years (Maes and Kozierok, 1993; Lashkari et al., 1994; Maes, 1994; Payne and Edwards, 1997; Brzezinski and Dain, 2001; Bergman et al., 2002). At the root of this interest is the vision that agents will become a long-term solution for providing user assistance in tackling the currently challenging task of ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhcs 1071-5819/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2006.06.004 à Tel.: +1 807 343 8698; fax: +1 807 343 8443. E-mail address: aserenko@lakeheadu.ca.