On the whole participants said they did not mind what the picture of the assistant looked like as long as it was not offensive.
 

Participants said the ideal assistant would be:

• Friendly without being too familiar.
• Pleasant, polite and approachable.
• Knowledgeable but not patronising.
• Concise and useful.
• Error messages should also be polite and constructive, helping the user to overcome the problem.

Of the 3 assistants:

• The best interaction style was MSN, due it chat style.
• McAfee returned the best results – specific, appropriate and plentiful.
• McAfee and At The Races had the fastest processes.
• At The Races and McAfee were the easiest to use.

Participants thought that virtual assistants did provide some benefits, especially when users were having greater difficulties finding what they need as it provides a very 'hand holding' experience. Participants felt that virtual assistants would be a good adjunct to the help 'toolbox', but were certainly not sufficient as standalone help mechanisms. They need to be complemented by search engines, FAQs, help wizards, etc.

TUC would recommend providing as many of the various help mechanisms as possible, but centralising them, so the point of entry to the help systems is as uniform as possible. Where possible the help systems should be crossed linked so when one fails the user has a route to the other options available.
 

From this research and our previous experience, there is a clear distinction between the type of questions for which users would choose to browse in order to find the answer, those questions about which they would seek assistance from a search engine or self-help assistant and those questions about which they would use a call centre:

• Users tend to browse for answers to questions which they felt they could easily find themselves on a website. It should be noted that the information architecture of the site would strongly influence this decision. That is, whether the self-help assistant was globally available or was found by accessing a specific function, how visible that activating function and assistant were and whether the information being sought was in an intuitive location.
• Users employ assistants to help find answers to questions that are higher level/general or those seemingly more difficult to find answers to on the site without assistance. The majority of users enter their queries in a natural language form rather than as a set of keywords.
• Where there is a search facility available, it is used to search for very specific items.
• Users say they would use a Call Centre for more personal questions relevant to their specific circumstances. Most users dislike using call centres due to the length of time spent on hold and the poor level of service once through to an operator.

The assistant should be clearly visible on the page. If it has to be activated by a specific mechanism, like a button, then that should have an icon to show the help section includes an assistant and should be placed in a clear position towards the top of the page, but without looking like an advert or users will NOT select it. The 'mechanism' should not be just a 'help' option because people have had negative experiences with using 'help' on the Internet. Very few people choose the 'help' option because they know from experience that this is of little use.
 

The assistant needs to understand the users' queries and provide appropriate answers quickly, in concise, plain English with as little need for rephrasing the query as possible, but certainly within the first 3 attempts. Otherwise, users will not use the assistant. Where appropriate, users should be provided with links to take them to the page being discussed.
 

Where the assistant cannot provide the appropriate answers, the user should be directed to other helpful online and offline resources such as a Helpline number (freephone if possible), contact details, FAQs, live chat facility, etc. However, it should be noted that users expect their queries to be answered specifically, not be provided with a list of possible choices, as in a search engine.