Evaluating User Experience in Conversational Recommender Systems: A Systematic Review Across Classical and LLM-Powered Approaches

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Main Authors: Mahmud, Raj, Wu, Yufeng, Sawad, Abdullah Bin, Berkovsky, Shlomo, Prasad, Mukesh, Kocaballi, A. Baki
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Mahmud, Raj
Wu, Yufeng
Sawad, Abdullah Bin
Berkovsky, Shlomo
Prasad, Mukesh
Kocaballi, A. Baki
author_facet Mahmud, Raj
Wu, Yufeng
Sawad, Abdullah Bin
Berkovsky, Shlomo
Prasad, Mukesh
Kocaballi, A. Baki
contents Conversational Recommender Systems (CRSs) are receiving growing research attention across domains, yet their user experience (UX) evaluation remains limited. Existing reviews largely overlook empirical UX studies, particularly in adaptive and large language model (LLM)-based CRSs. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines, synthesising 23 empirical studies published between 2017 and 2025. We analysed how UX has been conceptualised, measured, and shaped by domain, adaptivity, and LLM. Our findings reveal persistent limitations: post hoc surveys dominate, turn-level affective UX constructs are rarely assessed, and adaptive behaviours are seldom linked to UX outcomes. LLM-based CRSs introduce further challenges, including epistemic opacity and verbosity, yet evaluations infrequently address these issues. We contribute a structured synthesis of UX metrics, a comparative analysis of adaptive and nonadaptive systems, and a forward-looking agenda for LLM-aware UX evaluation. These findings support the development of more transparent, engaging, and user-centred CRS evaluation practices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_02096
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evaluating User Experience in Conversational Recommender Systems: A Systematic Review Across Classical and LLM-Powered Approaches
Mahmud, Raj
Wu, Yufeng
Sawad, Abdullah Bin
Berkovsky, Shlomo
Prasad, Mukesh
Kocaballi, A. Baki
Information Retrieval
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
H.3.3; H.5.2; I.2.7
Conversational Recommender Systems (CRSs) are receiving growing research attention across domains, yet their user experience (UX) evaluation remains limited. Existing reviews largely overlook empirical UX studies, particularly in adaptive and large language model (LLM)-based CRSs. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines, synthesising 23 empirical studies published between 2017 and 2025. We analysed how UX has been conceptualised, measured, and shaped by domain, adaptivity, and LLM. Our findings reveal persistent limitations: post hoc surveys dominate, turn-level affective UX constructs are rarely assessed, and adaptive behaviours are seldom linked to UX outcomes. LLM-based CRSs introduce further challenges, including epistemic opacity and verbosity, yet evaluations infrequently address these issues. We contribute a structured synthesis of UX metrics, a comparative analysis of adaptive and nonadaptive systems, and a forward-looking agenda for LLM-aware UX evaluation. These findings support the development of more transparent, engaging, and user-centred CRS evaluation practices.
title Evaluating User Experience in Conversational Recommender Systems: A Systematic Review Across Classical and LLM-Powered Approaches
topic Information Retrieval
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
H.3.3; H.5.2; I.2.7
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02096