Designing metaphor-fluid voice user interfaces

Desai, Smit

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125542 Copy

Description

Title

Designing metaphor-fluid voice user interfaces

Author(s)

Desai, Smit

Issue Date

2024-07-03

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Twidale, Michael
• Chin, Jessie

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Twidale, Michael

Committee Member(s)

• Lueg, Christopher Peter
• Cowan, Benjamin

Department of Study

Information Sciences

Discipline

Information Sciences

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Conversational Interfaces
• Voice User Interfaces
• Metaphor Analysis
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Conversational AI
• Design Theory

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the use of metaphors in Voice User Interfaces (VUIs), with a focus on expanding beyond traditional human-centric metaphors to include non-human and fictional metaphors. The research explores how these metaphors shape user expectations, perceptions, and the functionality of VUIs, revealing the complexities of human-VUI interaction. Through a multidisciplinary literature review, the study contextualizes metaphors within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), highlighting their traditional role in simplifying user interfaces and shaping expectations. Unlike graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that employ metaphors like 'desktop' to aid user understanding, VUIs have predominantly utilized the 'humanness' metaphor to aid user engagement. This approach, while facilitating familiar interactions, often fails to capture the diverse, complex, and unexpected ways in which users perceive and interact with VUIs. The design experience of developing VUIs intended to perform social roles, such as teachers, storytellers, and exercise coaches—especially for older adults—revealed how users perceive and interact with these interfaces. These investigations reveal a mismatch between the designed personas and user expectations, showcasing a fluid and context-dependent interpretation of VUI roles that is heavily influenced by personal experiences and societal norms. Furthermore, the findings from this dissertation highlight a strong preference among users for non-human and fictional metaphors, which help mitigate some of the ethical and practical limitations inherent in human-like metaphors. This research demonstrates that user perceptions of VUIs are significantly shaped by the type of metaphor used (human, non-human, and fictional), the context of the conversation (commands, sociality, information seeking, and error recovery), and the domain of interaction (e.g., health and finance). Consequently, it suggests that VUIs should adapt based on these factors, moving away from simplistic system personas toward contextually aware metaphor-fluid design.

Graduation Semester

2024-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125542

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2024, Smit Desai

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