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Pronoy Kapoor
Voice Activated UI
College
A fun project to understand a different type of user interface. Working in a team to explore suitable UX research and design methods to deliver a fresh product idea.
Roles
UX researcher & UX designer
Team size
3
Time frame
4 weeks
Tools
Adobe XD, powerpoint
Figure: Defining the goal of the project and the system functionalities
Scope
The goal of this project is to design a voice activated infotainment system for automotives for BWM Canada. This project focused on developing a framework for a voice automated user interface for cars. Based on various research activities that were conducted; requirements of the business and user end were identified. In the end, all research and design activities culminates in a low fidelity wireframe to be presented to the client.
Overview
Understanding the client
In order to design a voice activated user interface an in-depth research was conducted and was presented to the client. In order to convince the client for the requirements, we had to generate business goals, user goals, user persona and target users. So aligning the client with the vision was made easy.
Figure: Business goals of the client
Understanding the user
Once the business needs and goals have been identified, now it is turn to identify the user. Similar to the business, the end user also has some expectations from this product. Thus conducting secondary research to identify the type and kind of user was necessary. Based on these analysis was generated a user persona which helped design the system.
Figure: Identifying the various type of users and the user goals
Persona
After understanding the user needs and goals, it was time to prepare a user persona. This persona has been generated after evaluating key areas like scenarios, personality types, technology comfort of the user, needs and motivations etc. This persona will be a guiding point for the entire project as all the design elements will be aligned with the user needs depicted through this person.
Figure: Based on the target audience, creating a persona
Research
Features and services
Converting the research into meaningful system was the next step in our process. For designing the system we started with defining the features and services out voice activated UI will offer. This was based on the competitive analysis done and the market research conducted. The challenge was to keep all the functionalities of an automobile in mind and integrate it with all the features that a multiplatform system would provide.
Figure: tools and services for the proposed VUI
System design
The first step was to identify the system and user interactions and all the scenarios that this interaction can take place in. Keeping in the focus the user persona we highlighted the user mental model which gave idea of what the user state of mind can be while driving and using the VUI. The challenge was to create these list based on secondhand information. It would have been preferred to have real time data and testing would have been most appropriate at this place.
Figure: Defining parameters for designing the system
System persona
Similar to the user persona, the system persona exists. The reason for designing a system persona is that the user should be made to feel that they are interacting with another person while performing these actions. Thus, putting the user at ease and comfort under conditions. Giving the system persona was challenging as it has to be careful balance of tones and utterances and also giving it a personality that was informative but humanly at the same time.
Figure: Creating a system persona to interact with the user
Sample dialogue
The final element of the system design is how the system response to the user utterances. This was completed in the form of a sample dialogue. This dialogue gives you the idea about the sensitivity of the system and also the sentience of the system.
Figure: Designing a sample dialogue to emphasis on the sophistication of the system
System Design
Designing the wireframes
Culminating all the research done, we designed a wireframe of the proposed VUI. Initially a call flow diagram was created which later informed the flow of the wireframes. The screen was designed keeping in mind the user needs and business goals. The whole idea is to keep the user engaged in the least distracting manner for which the persona was the guiding point. The challenge was to keep the dialogue as simple and natural as possible with giving the system as much agility as possible. Below each screen has been described for the sample dialogue that was designed in the previous section.
Figure: Users call flow diagram
Next steps
Following the success of the design process of the wireframes this project would be presented to the client for approval. Further testing would give us insight into the usability and accessibility of the system. Next, would be converting the wireframes into prototypes and lastly to introduce the new tested system to the end user.
Wireframes
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