Voice as a Design Material

Abstract

While there is a renewed interest in voice user interfaces (VUI) in HCI, little attention has been paid to the design of VUI voice output beyond intelligibility and naturalness. We draw on the ield of sociophonetics-the study of the social factors that inluence the production and perception of speech-to highlight how current VUIs are based on a limited and homogenised set of voice outputs. We argue that current systems do not adequately consider the diversity of peoples' speech, how that diversity represents sociocultural identities, and how voices have the potential to shape user perceptions and experiences. Ultimately, as other technological developments have inluenced the ideologies of language, the voice outputs of VUIs will inluence the ideologies of speech. Based on our argument, we pose three design strategies for VUI voice output designindividualisation, context awareness, and diversiication-to motivate new ways of conceptualising and designing these technologies. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → HCI theory, concepts and models; Sound-based input / output.

One Voice Fits All?

“…Research in this vein suggests that social cues from voice add meaningful and systematic information over and above the linguistic content in speech, and that socio-psychological processing of speech leads to computers being seen as social actors. Similar to our own work, Sutton et al [71] suggest that individualization and context of use affect how users are affected by voice. Our work complements and amplifies this research by suggesting how other factors such as embodiment or lack thereof affects voice design, and suggests ways to deliberately design voices for social persuasion.…”

“…Our HRI-based perspective also distinguishes this paper from recent work that studies the design of speech interfaces with voice in isolation. For example, Sutton et al propose a framework based on findings from socio-phonetics [71]. While studying voices in isolation prevents the confounding effects of voice with the effects of embodiment, in practice embodiment, form-factor, and contexts of use do indeed influence how people perceive voice interfaces and social robots [23,28,34,50].…”

Experiential Qualities of Whispering with Voice Assistants

“…Voice assistants are characterized by being conversational user interfaces (CUI): an interface through which a user can interact with a computer by having a conversation [48]. The primary design materials of a voice assistant include the computer generated speech [34,35,52], the perceived persona or personality of the assistant [26], the algorithms executing the "conversation" and informational data accessed and stored through the Internet. Voice assistants can be embedded in a range of objects, such as speakers, smartphones, watches, TV remotes, headsets and rings.…”

Broadening Exposure to Socio-Political Opinions via a Pushy Smart Home Device

“…We did not encounter any identifiable misinformation throughout this study, but future work must be cognisant of the systemic nature of disinformation campaigns [61]. Given the potential for different voice user interfaces to be seen as more trusting than others based on their vocal qualities [63], such devices could be seen as a route to broadcasting specific political views into people's homes and shaping householders sociopolitical opinions. Furthermore, in requesting responses from households to news content, the devices could feasibly become 'political sensors', used as a means to gather political opinion.…”