Service Design and Voice Interfaces

Hello there!

This month we're talking about voice interfaces.

Voice assistant technology is rapidly improving, and voice interfaces are transforming the way that users access and interact with services.

This technology poses exciting opportunities for service design, however designing for voice interactions comes with challenges as well as possibilities. Moreover, the development of services delivered via voice interfaces is mainly tech-driven at present rather than the result of human-centred design.

Join us at this event to explore key considerations when designing for interactions with voice technology, and the role of service designers in designing for voice interactions today and in the future.

There will be two talks.

1. "This is not what we wanted": Talking with and around voice agents
   Stuart Reeves

Design is increasingly said to be about constructing 'conversations' with end users. Advances in speech technologies and the spread of speech-enabled agents are pushing this idea literally. Devices like the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Siri connect users with services and are providing platforms for designers to interact with users in new ways. In spite of this (often hyped) anticipation of an AI-powered future, it is not always clear how the vision measures up to lived reality of 'having a conversation' with machines. Designing for voice-driven interactions also means understanding how they sit within social environments saturated with everyday conversation.

Stuart will present work being done at University of Nottingham that examines exactly how voice interfaces like the Amazon Echo come to be used in the home to fulfil a variety of activities: managing shopping lists, listening to music, playing games or asking for information. By capturing 'naturalistic' recordings of Echo use in participants' homes we can start to build a very rich picture of how users 'get stuff done' with voice interfaces. The aim of the talk is to present a range of practical implications as well as conceptual challenges for designers and user researchers tackling voice interfaces.

2 Physiology and Psychology of the Human Voice
Professor Carolyn McGettigan

On the physiology of the human voice, the information we can get from it, and how we study it as cognitive scientists.

Carolyn is a Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences at UCL.

Her research focuses on the neural and behavioural aspects of human vocal communication, including speech perception and perceptual learning (and individual differences in these processes), audiovisual speech, voice identity processing, perception and production of emotional vocalizations, and social cues in spoken communication.

The evening is being hosted by the great folk over at Idean UK. Idean was formerly Adaptive Lab, and are now part of the Idean global design studio network. They build products, services and Beta Businesses – that launch and grow faster, and behave bolder. Creating a new environment to behave differently lets them and their clients tackle new opportunities with a fresh start, and learn along the way.

Their team is a hybrid bunch of early-stage proposition designers and go-to-market builders. And they're hiring!

Check out their open roles here: https://www.idean.com/careers?offices=26238&departments=all

Hope to see you there!

Love & Peace
The Service Lab Team

Afsa, Jenni & Rupert