Voice is the primary tool of communication to a majority of people on earth. Humans are wired to process speech, meaning voice interaction require little cognitive effort. Advancements in voice technology over the last 20 years have seen an increased prevalence of voice-controlled applications. However, false expectations can potentially cause severe interaction deficiencies to many of these voice user interfaces. One of the many application areas being connected to voice is access solutions such as smart locks. With a fundamental value proposition of keeping people and their belongings safe and secure in convenient ways, access solutions require that many of the design decisions are delicate. The present thesis aimed to evaluate how expectations of access solutions in home environments can be affected by different voice attributes. A literature study was conducted to explore the rich body of research on the topic of voice technology and the psychological effects of synthesized speech. Based on the literature study, a design process with recognized methods for developing voice user interfaces was conducted. The design process led up to a Wizard of Oz test that was used to evaluate how different conversational strategies and voices affected expectations and perception of a voice-controlled smart lock. The results showed that choosing an appropriate conversational style is fundamental to provide users with a sense of control. Furthermore, the study provided insight on how previous experience of interacting with voice-controlled devices have an impact on the feeling of personalization in gendered synthesized voices. Finally, the study discusses some ethical considerations that have to be made when designing voice user interfaces that ultimately should provide value to users, not confine their privacy. / Röst är den primära kommunikationskällan för de flesta människorna på jorden. Förmågan att bearbeta tal är något människor föds med, vilket gör att interaktion genom röst kräver liten kognitiv ansträngning. Framsteg inom röstteknologi under de senaste 20 åren har lett till ett ökat utbud av röststyrda applikationer. För många av dessa röststyrda applikationer existerar en risk att falska förväntningar leder till avsevärt försämrad interaktion. Ett av många applikationsområden där röst börjar framträda är accesslösningar såsom smarta lås. Med sitt fundamentala värde att hålla människor och deras tillgångar trygga och säkra utan att kompromissa enkelheten, kräver utformningen av accesslösningar flera delikata beslut. Därmed har studien ämnat att utvärdera hur användares förväntningar på röststyrda accesslösningar påverkas av röstattribut. För att undersöka och öka förståelsen av röstteknologi och de psykologiska effekterna av tal, genomfördes en litteraturstudie av existerande forskning initialt. Baserat på fynden i litteraturstudien startades sedan en designprocess för utveckling av ett röstgränssnitt. Erkända metoder användes för framtagandet av ett användarvänligt gränssnitt. Designprocessen låg till grund för ett Wizard of Oz test där olika konversationsstrategier och röster påverkade förväntningar av och uppfattningen av ett röststyrt smart lås. Resultaten visar att det är fundamentalt att välja en passande konversationsstil för att ge användare en känsla av kontroll. Studien påvisade även hur tidigare erfarenheter av röststyrda applikationer påverkar förväntningar av andra röststyrda applikationer och gör dem mer eller mindre personliga. Vidare diskuteras etiska avvägningar som måste göras när man designar röstgränssnitt som ska medföra användarvärde och inte inskränka användarnas integritet.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to evaluate an early stage survey skill developed for the social robot Furhat, and look into how the user experience (UX) and voice user interface (VUI) of that skill can be improved. Several qualitative methods have been used: expert evaluations using heuristics for human-robot interaction (HRI), user evaluations including observations and interviews, as well as a quantitative questionnaire (RoSAS – Robot Social Attribution Scale). The empirical findings have been classified into the USUS Evaluation Framework for Human-Robot Interaction. The user evaluations were performed in two modes, one group of informants talked and interacted with Furhat with the support of a graphical user interface (GUI), and the other group without the GUI. A positive user experience was identified in both modes, showing that the informants found interacting with Furhat a fun, engaging and interesting experience. The mode with the supportive GUI could be suitable in noisy environments, and for longer surveys with many response alternatives to choose from, whereas the other mode could work better for less noisy environments and for shorter surveys. General improvements that can contribute to a better user experience in both modes were found; such as having the robot adopt a more human-like character when it comes to the dialogue and the facial expressions and movements, along with addressing a number of technical and usability issues. / Syftet med den här kvalitativa fallstudien är att utvärdera en enkätskill för den sociala roboten Furhat. Förutom utvärderingen av denna skill, som är i ett tidigt skede av utvecklingen, är syftet även att undersöka hur användarupplevelsen (UX) och röstgränssnittet (VUI) kan förbättras. Olika kvalitativa metoder har använts: expertutvärderingar med heuristik för MRI (människa-robot-interaktion), användarutvärderingar bestående av observationer och intervjuer, samt ett kvantitativt frågeformulär (RoSAS – Robot Social Attribution Scale). Resultaten från dessa har placerats in i ramverket USUS Evaluation Framework for Human- Robot Interaction. Användarutvärderingarna utfördes i två olika grupper: en grupp pratade och interagerade med Furhat med stöd av ett grafiskt användargränssnitt (GUI), den andra hade inget GUI. En positiv användarupplevelse konstaterades i båda grupperna: informanterna tyckte att det var roligt, engagerande och intressant att interagera med Furhat. Att ha ett GUI som stöd kan passa bättre för bullriga miljöer och för längre enkäter med många svarsalternativ att välja bland, medan ett GUI inte behövs för lugnare miljöer och kortare enkäter. Generella förbättringar som kan bidra till att höja användarupplevelsen hittades i båda grupperna; till exempel att roboten bör agera mer människolikt när det kommer till dialogen och ansiktsuttryck och rörelser, samt att åtgärda ett antal tekniska problem och användbarhetsproblem.

The largest software companies in the world are racing to develop their Intelligent Personal Assistants. Each with more and more capabilities and ways for users to access them. The different assistants have different capabilities and one of the ways the companies are differentiating is in the interaction techniques their assistants that are controlled with, most uses voice, and some uses text. This thesis walks through these interaction techniques, give a brief overview of intelligent personal assistants today and explores how learnability differentiate when using these interaction techniques. The thesis also investigates when users have access to multiple interaction techniques to use in combination when interacting with such an assistant. To evaluate the field, a literature study was conducted covering Intelligent Personal Assistants, interaction techniques, conversational user interfaces, modalities, multimodal interaction, voice and chat interfaces. Interviews with early adopters of Intelligent Personal Assistants was performed to better understand the current state of the technology and how users were using it. To evaluate the learnability differences in different interaction techniques, a series of user tests in a wizard-of-oz setup was conducted. In the user tests the different groups was using different interaction techniques to interact with their assistants. The main findings of the user tests was that there are indications to that the type of language used differs depending on the interaction techniques. Users who interact through voice is more prone to use a more natural language, while users using a chat interface quickly started to treat the interactions with the Intelligent Personal Assistant as commands. The result observed was that users who interacted with the assistant using chat and then switched to interacting through voice used a shorter, more command-like language when they interacted through voice as well.

This diploma thesis deals with the accessibility of a voice user interface (VUI) for digitally illiterate people. The first part summarizes the principles of VIU design, the standardized methods of usability evaluation and analyzes empirical studies of the accessibility of VUI. The second part of the thesis describes in detail the proposed experiment which uses the OZ method. It deals with the segmentation of digitally illiterate people and describes their typical representatives. The third part is devoted to the analysis of the research results, the evaluation of the usability of interaction systems and analyzes recorded dialogues between participants and the prototype of the voice user interface. The last part discusses the results of the research and formulates preliminary conclusions on the accessibility of VUI for digitally illiterate persons. In addition to the preliminary conclusions, the product of this work presents new hypotheses concerning this specific area of human-computer interaction. Keywords human computer interaction, voice user interface, digital literacy, accessibility, usability 1

Röststyrning och rösttolkning är ett gränssnitt mellan användare och dator som blivit vanligare i kommersiella produkter. Gränssnittet används i digitala assistenter, det vill säga en mjukvarubaserad tjänst utformad för att hjälpa användare att utföra digitala uppgifter. Dessa uppgifter inkluderar att svara på frågor, hantera scheman, hemkontroll, spela musik och mycket mer. Eftersom digitala assistenter är relativt nya så finns det ett behov av mer kunskap om hur man kan skapa applikationer för plattformen.Rapporten ger kunskap om hur utvecklingsprocessen ser ut för en röststyrd ap- plikation till Google Assistant. Detta görs med en fallstudie som ger en inblick i de olika design- och arkitekturval som ingår i mjukvaruutvecklingen. Resultatet beskriver lämpliga konversationsmönster för röstgränssnitt i röststyrda applikationer och ett lämpligt arkitekturmönster för kodbasen. Med hjälp av studien drogs slutsatser om vilka begränsningar som finns hos röststyrda applikationer. / Voice control and voice interpretation is an interface between users and computers that have become more common in commercial products. The interface is used in digital assistants, which is a software-based service designed to help users perform digital tasks. These tasks include answering questions, managing their schedules, home control, playing music and more. Because digital assistants are relatively new, there is a need for more knowledge about how to create applications for the platform.The report provides information on how the development process looks like for a voice-controlled application for Google Assistant. This is done by a case study that provides insight into the various design and architecture choices that are included in the software development. The result describes a suitable conversation pattern for voice interfaces in voice-controlled applications and an appropriate architecture for the codebase. The study draws conclusions about the limitations of voice-controlled applications.

[pt] O presente estudo parte da premissa de que novas formas de se comunicar surgem ao longo dos anos, inclusive na relação entre o humano e a máquina, onde, atualmente, a fala é o veículo comunicacional predominante. E nesse diálogo há uma busca para a adequação da máquina à nossa forma de comunicação e uma constante necessidade de adequação dos seres humanos à forma de comunicação da máquina. Essa investigação visa elucidar se sistemas baseados em interfaces de voz compõe o modelo de interação fundado no que se define como conversa, sendo amparados pelas áreas da ergonomia e usabilidade e por fundamentos provenientes da teoria da conversação. Este trabalho encontra-se estruturado em quatro seções: a primeira equivale a fundamentação teórica; a segunda seção abrange o levantamento de dados através de entrevistas com usuários de interfaces conversacionais; a terceira seção constitui-se na análise de conteúdo das entrevistas; e por fim, a quarta seção envolve as considerações em torno das experiências no uso de interfaces conversacionais atuais. / [en] The present study starts from the premise that new ways of communication are emerging throughout the years, including the relationship between human and machine, which nowadays, speech is the predominant communicational vehicle. And in this dialogue, there is a search for the adaptation of the machine to our form of communication and a constant need to human s adaptation to the machine s form of communication. This investigation attempts to clarify if systems based on voice interfaces are in fact composed by a model of interaction that is defined as conversation, and if they are actually being supported by the areas of ergonomics, usability, and also by the basics fundaments of conversation theory. This work finds itself structured in four sections: the first one corresponds to the theoretical foundations; the second section embraces data collection, which gathered several interviews with the users of conversational interfaces; the third section is established on the content analysis of the previous interviews; lastly, the fourth section concerns the final considerations of the current experience of conversational interfaces.

[pt] Com cada vez mais objetos interconectados com capacidade de processamento próprios, a computação gradativamente se desvincula do computador desktop , e se torna mais favorável a novos formatos de computadores e novas interfaces. Os computadores que conversam e as interfaces de voz já foram largamente explorados em filmes e livros de ficção como Ela , 2001: Uma Odisséia no Espaço e Eu, robô, dentre outros. No entanto, não é apenas na ficção que a voz como interface aparece: sendo cada vez mais comum nos dias atuais, ela é forma de interação em vários dispositivos como computadores desktop , smartphones , smartwatches , smartTvs e videogames . Essa interface é também adotada em assistentes virtuais que auxiliam seus usuários em toda sorte de funções do dia-a-dia como organização de agenda, anotações, previsão do tempo, despertadores e controle dos chamados objetos inteligentes. O foco dessa pesquisa foi a relação dos usuários com essas interfaces de voz e com os assistentes virtuais, e como está se dando a recepção dos mesmos: como está acontecendo sua adoção, quais as opiniões e expectativas do usuário, e que problemas encontra? A premissa da pesquisa é que a personificação, ou seja, a humanização através da adoção de uma personsalidade e persona, bem como o uso de interfaces conversacionais nos assistentes virtuais facilita a sua aceitação e torna a opinião sobre os mesmos positiva. Para responder essa questão, foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica e uma pesquisa de campo em duas etapas: a aplicação de um questionário online e a realização de grupos de foco. O questionário foi aplicado com o intuito de recrutar participantes para o grupo de foco, além de investigar a adoção e o uso de assistentes de voz por pessoas que moram no Rio de Janeiro. A aplicação do grupo de foco visou levantar a aceitação e as opiniões desses usuários sobre esses Assistentes Virtuais Personificados que usam a voz como interface, e mapear suas dificuldades com a tecnologia e suas expectativas acerca da mesma para o futuro. O resultado mostrou que a personalidade desses assistentes realmente facilita a sua adoção e tem efeitos positivos sobre a percepção do usuário, porém as interfaces de voz ainda geram desconforto quando usadas em ambiente público. As maiores preocupações levantadas pelos usuários em relação aos assistentes de voz não foram técnicas ou de usabilidade, mas reflexões sobre o impacto dos assistentes na sociedade e na vida das pessoas. / [en] As there are increasingly more interconnected objects with processing capacity, computing gradually disconnects from the desktop computer as it becomes more open to new computer formats and new interfaces. Talking computers and voice interfaces have been extensively explored in films and fiction books such as Her, 2001: A Space Odyssey and I, Robot, among others. However, it is not only in science fiction that the voice user interface appears. It became more common these days as a form of interaction in several devices like desktop computers, smartphones, smartwatches, smartTvs and videogames. This interface is also adopted in virtual assistants that help its users in all sorts of day-to-day functions such as scheduling, annotations, weather forecasting, alarm clocks, and smart objects control, and some of the virtual assistants have been developed with a humanized approach, adopting a name and a personality. The focus of this research was the relationship of users with these voice interfaces and personified virtual assistants, and how they are being received: how is their adoption taking place, what are the opinions and expectations of its users, and what problems do they encounter? The hypothesis of this research is that the personification and the adoption of conversational interfaces in virtual assistants facilitates its acceptance and makes the opinions about it more positive. To answer this question, a bibliographical review and a field research were carried out in two stages with an online form and focus groups. The questionnaire was applied in order to investigate the adoption and use of voice assistants by people living in Rio de Janeiro, and to recruit participants to the focus group. The focus group aimed to explore the acceptance and opinions of these users about the personified virtual assistants that use the voice as interface, and to map their difficulties and their expectations for the future of technology. The result shows that the personality of these assistants facilitates their adoption and has positive effects on user perception, but voice interfaces still generate discomfort when used in the public environment. The major concerns users faced while using voice assistants were not technical or usability problems but worries about the impact of the assistants on society and people s lives.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-07-31T19:39:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA ISABEL FARIA CARNEIRO - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2014..pdf: 45568096 bytes, checksum: 7fe570750f4904224de8b7e2f76035e2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-31T19:39:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA ISABEL FARIA CARNEIRO - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2014..pdf: 45568096 bytes, checksum: 7fe570750f4904224de8b7e2f76035e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03 / 0 desenvolvimento de interfaces vocais [VUI - Voice User Interface) per se não é uma garantia para um processo interativo de qualidade entre usuários com deficiência visual e sistemas computacionais. Com o intuito de avaliar os problemas de acessibilidade em VUI, a presente pesquisa focalizou a proposição de uma abordagem de avaliação baseada em um conjunto de técnicas já conhecidas pela comunidade de IHC (Interação Homem-Máquina). No tocante a cada técnica utilizada, o problema foi focado a partir de diferentes perspectivas: (i) do usuário, expresso a partir das visões dos usuários sobre o produto, reunidas a partir de uma abordagem de avaliação; (ii) do especialista, expresso sob a forma de análise dos resultados dos desempenhos dos usuários em sessões de teste de acessibilidade; e (iii) da comunidade de acessibilidade, expresso com base em revisões de projeto, a fim de determinar se o projeto da interface está em conformidade com um padrão. Além disso, visando a evidenciar a incerteza associada aos julgamentos do avaliador na inspeção de conformidade do produto, incorporou-se a modelagem de incerteza, a partir da utilização de Redes Bayesianas, possibilitando ao avaliador explicitar os níveis de incerteza associados às inspeções de conformidade do produto a um padrão, por ele realizadas. A abordagem metodológica foi validada a partir de um estudo de caso envolvendo a avaliação da acessibilidade do sistema computacional DOSVOX, desenvolvido na Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), com o objetivo de auxiliar usuários com deficiência visual no uso de sistemas computacionais. No enfoque da inspeção de conformidade, consideraram-se as partes 14 (Diálogos via menus), 17 (Diálogos via preenchimento via formulários) e 171 (Guia de acessibilidade de software) do padrão internacional ISO 9241. Por outro lado, nos enfoques da mensuração de desempenho e da sondagem da satisfação subjetiva do usuário, foram realizados testes de acessibilidade, envolvendo um universo amostrai de 100 usuários. Inicialmente, os participantes foram agrupados como cegos (40 usuários), baixa visão (20 usuários) e sem deficiência visual (40 usuários), de acordo com tipo de deficiência visual. Em seguida, eles foram classificados como principiantes (46 usuários) ou intermediários (54 usuários), de acordo com o nível de conhecimento em Informática e de experiência o produto avaliado. Os dados resultantes dos testes de acessibilidade foram processados estatisticamente, a fim de verificar a correlação entre os desempenhos dos grupos de usuários e entre o desempenho das categorias de usuários de cada grupo. O processamento estatístico dos dados evidenciou a inexistência de diferenças significativas entre os desempenhos dos grupos, bem como entre as categorias de usuários. Por outro lado, a confrontação dos resultados dos três enfoques (mensuração de desempenho do usuário, mensuração da satisfação subjetiva do usuário e inspeção de conformidade do produto a padrões) demonstrou que a abordagem de avaliação proposta produziu resultados complementares e reforçou a relevância da utilização de uma abordagem multimétodos para a avaliação de acessibilidade de interfaces vocais. / Voice interaction design per se does not provide quality assurance of the interactive process for visually impaired users. In this dissertation, a method for evaluating voice user interface (VUI) accessibility based upon a set of techniques already well-known to the HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) community is proposed. For each technique, the problem is focused from a different perspective: (i) the user's perspective, which is expressed as views on the product gathered from an inquiry-based approach; (ii) the specialist's perspective, which is expressed by the analysis of the performance results in accessibility testing sessions; and (iii) the accessibility community's perspective, which is expressed by design reviews to determine whether a user interface design conforms to standards. Additionally, Bayesian networks were used in order to make explicit the uncertainty inherent in conformity inspection processes. A case study with DOSVOX system was performed to validate the proposed approach. DOSVOX system was developed at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) with the aim of helping visually impaired users use the computer. A conformity inspection was performed in accordance with parts 14 (Menu dialogues), 17 (Form-filling dialogues) 171 (Guidance on software accessibility) of ISO 9241. On the other hand, the user performance measurement and the user subjective satisfaction measurement were conducted via accessibility testing. One hundred subjects were enrolled in this study. First, they were categorized as blind (40 users), low vision (20 users) and non-visually impaired (40 users), according to their visual impairment. Second, they were grouped as novices (46 users) and intermediates (54 users), according to their knowledge level in Informatics and experience with the evaluated product. Accessibility test results were statistically analyzed in order to verify the correlation between category performances and between group performances. No statistically significant differences between the user categories or the user groups were found. On the other hand, data comparison showed that the three strategies adopted (user performance measurement, user satisfaction measurement and standard conformity inspection) add to the evaluation process, producing complimentary data that are significant to the process, and reinforcing the relevance of a multi-layered approach for the accessibility evaluation of voice user interfaces.