The User Experience of ChatGPT: Findings from a Questionnaire Study of Early Users

Abstract

The launch of ChatGPT has attracted significant attention and showcased the potentially game-changing capabilities of conversational AI. These capabilities, and lack of user research, highlight the need to investigate how users experience interactions with conversational AIs like ChatGPT. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire study with ChatGPT users (N=194), inquiring about their good and poor experiences with ChatGPT. The user reports were analyzed by a thematic analysis and systematized through a pragmatic-hedonic framework. Our results demonstrate how user experience is influenced by pragmatic attributes such as ChatGPT providing useful and detailed information and easing work- or school-related tasks. Additionally, user experience is impacted by hedonic attributes, such as entertainment and creative interactions, and interactions leaving the user impressed or surprised. Our study underscores that user experience concerning conversational AI like ChatGPT is assessed by useful and productive interactions even in early phase of uptake, suggesting the importance of pragmatic attributes.