Talking to Stupid?!? Improving Voice User Interfaces

Abstract

Voice User Interfaces have become part of our daily life by being integrated in smartphones, computers, smart home devices and many other consumer products. However, despite their potential, voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri are not that widely used. Why is that? What are their pain points? How can the interaction and dialog flow between the user and the voice user interface (UI) be improved?

In a research and development project at designaffairs, insights from user research were used to develop an interaction and dialog concept for a voice UI. The concept draft was refined with user feedback to develop a software prototype. This early voice UI prototype was then evaluated in a user test which demonstrated its potential in better satisfing the user’s wishes for a natural dialog flow.

Overall, the iterative user centered approach of the project revealed crucial pain points of the human-machine interaction and further opportunity areas to meet the user’s need.