Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities

Michael Shorter; Bettina Minder; Jon Rogers; Matthias Baldauf; Aurelio Todisco; Sabine Junginger; Aysun Aytaç; Patricia Wolf

doi:10.1145/3532106.3533519

Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities

Michael Shorter, Bettina Minder, Jon Rogers, Matthias Baldauf, Aurelio Todisco, Sabine Junginger, Aysun Aytaç, Patricia Wolf

Design

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Voice assistants (VAs), typically promoted as omniscient conversational butlers, still remain below users' expectations. Interaction designers seem to struggle bringing in user perspectives necessary to develop more meaningful VA applications beyond simple use cases such as playing music. One of the reasons might be the immateriality of cloud-based VA technology making it difficult to comprehend such complex and ever-evolving systems. In this paper, we investigate provotyping as a design tool for 'materialising the immaterial'. In our case study, teams of multidisciplinary experts devised twelve provotypes to explore intangible VA technology. We present and discuss three generalisations in respect to the role of provotypes for the exploration of VAs. Our findings show provotypes can serve as the necessary props by which we can bring in missing perspectives around this technology and generate material which enables designers to speculate, debate, and sketch out ideas for meaningful futures of VA applications.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
Subtitle of host publication	Digital Wellbeing
Editors	Florian `Floyd' Mueller, Stefan Greuter, Rohit Ashok Khot, Penny Sweetser, Marianna Obrist
Place of Publication	New York, US
Publisher	ACM
Pages	1512-1524
Number of pages	13
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450393584
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533519
Publication status	Published - 13 Jun 2022
Event	DIS '22: Designing Interactive Systems Conference - Online, Online, Australia Duration: 13 Jun 2022 → 17 Jun 2022 https://dis.acm.org/2022/

Conference

Conference	DIS '22
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Online
Period	13/06/22 → 17/06/22
Internet address	https://dis.acm.org/2022/

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10.1145/3532106.3533519

Cite this

Shorter, M., Minder, B., Rogers, J., Baldauf, M., Todisco, A., Junginger, S., Aytaç, A., & Wolf, P. (2022). Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities. In F. F. Mueller, S. Greuter, R. A. Khot, P. Sweetser, & M. Obrist (Eds.), DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing (pp. 1512-1524). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533519

Shorter, Michael ; Minder, Bettina ; Rogers, Jon et al. / Materialising the Immaterial : Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities. DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. editor / Florian `Floyd' Mueller ; Stefan Greuter ; Rohit Ashok Khot, ; Penny Sweetser ; Marianna Obrist. New York, US : ACM, 2022. pp. 1512-1524

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title = "Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities",

abstract = "Voice assistants (VAs), typically promoted as omniscient conversational butlers, still remain below users' expectations. Interaction designers seem to struggle bringing in user perspectives necessary to develop more meaningful VA applications beyond simple use cases such as playing music. One of the reasons might be the immateriality of cloud-based VA technology making it difficult to comprehend such complex and ever-evolving systems. In this paper, we investigate provotyping as a design tool for 'materialising the immaterial'. In our case study, teams of multidisciplinary experts devised twelve provotypes to explore intangible VA technology. We present and discuss three generalisations in respect to the role of provotypes for the exploration of VAs. Our findings show provotypes can serve as the necessary props by which we can bring in missing perspectives around this technology and generate material which enables designers to speculate, debate, and sketch out ideas for meaningful futures of VA applications.",

keywords = "Artificial Intelligence, Prototyping, Provotyping, Research Through Design, Speculative Design, Voice Assistants",

author = "Michael Shorter and Bettina Minder and Jon Rogers and Matthias Baldauf and Aurelio Todisco and Sabine Junginger and Aysun Ayta{\c c} and Patricia Wolf",

note = "Funding Information: The VA-People, Experiences, Practices and Routines (VA-PEPR) project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant Nr. CRSII5_189955). We would like to thank the support from the wider project team from Hochschule Luzern (HSLU), Ostschweizer Fachhochschule (OST) and Northumbria University.; DIS '22 : Designing Interactive Systems Conference ; Conference date: 13-06-2022 Through 17-06-2022",

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Shorter, M, Minder, B, Rogers, J, Baldauf, M, Todisco, A, Junginger, S, Aytaç, A & Wolf, P 2022, Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities. in FF Mueller, S Greuter, RA Khot, P Sweetser & M Obrist (eds), DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. ACM, New York, US, pp. 1512-1524, DIS '22, Online, Australia, 13/06/22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533519

Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities. / Shorter, Michael; Minder, Bettina; Rogers, Jon et al.
DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. ed. / Florian `Floyd' Mueller; Stefan Greuter; Rohit Ashok Khot,; Penny Sweetser; Marianna Obrist. New York, US: ACM, 2022. p. 1512-1524.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Materialising the Immaterial

T2 - DIS '22

AU - Shorter, Michael

AU - Minder, Bettina

AU - Rogers, Jon

AU - Baldauf, Matthias

AU - Todisco, Aurelio

AU - Junginger, Sabine

AU - Aytaç, Aysun

AU - Wolf, Patricia

N1 - Funding Information: The VA-People, Experiences, Practices and Routines (VA-PEPR) project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant Nr. CRSII5_189955). We would like to thank the support from the wider project team from Hochschule Luzern (HSLU), Ostschweizer Fachhochschule (OST) and Northumbria University.

PY - 2022/6/13

Y1 - 2022/6/13

N2 - Voice assistants (VAs), typically promoted as omniscient conversational butlers, still remain below users' expectations. Interaction designers seem to struggle bringing in user perspectives necessary to develop more meaningful VA applications beyond simple use cases such as playing music. One of the reasons might be the immateriality of cloud-based VA technology making it difficult to comprehend such complex and ever-evolving systems. In this paper, we investigate provotyping as a design tool for 'materialising the immaterial'. In our case study, teams of multidisciplinary experts devised twelve provotypes to explore intangible VA technology. We present and discuss three generalisations in respect to the role of provotypes for the exploration of VAs. Our findings show provotypes can serve as the necessary props by which we can bring in missing perspectives around this technology and generate material which enables designers to speculate, debate, and sketch out ideas for meaningful futures of VA applications.

AB - Voice assistants (VAs), typically promoted as omniscient conversational butlers, still remain below users' expectations. Interaction designers seem to struggle bringing in user perspectives necessary to develop more meaningful VA applications beyond simple use cases such as playing music. One of the reasons might be the immateriality of cloud-based VA technology making it difficult to comprehend such complex and ever-evolving systems. In this paper, we investigate provotyping as a design tool for 'materialising the immaterial'. In our case study, teams of multidisciplinary experts devised twelve provotypes to explore intangible VA technology. We present and discuss three generalisations in respect to the role of provotypes for the exploration of VAs. Our findings show provotypes can serve as the necessary props by which we can bring in missing perspectives around this technology and generate material which enables designers to speculate, debate, and sketch out ideas for meaningful futures of VA applications.

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KW - Prototyping

KW - Provotyping

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KW - Speculative Design

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DO - 10.1145/3532106.3533519

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BT - DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

A2 - Mueller, Florian `Floyd'

A2 - Greuter, Stefan

A2 - Khot,, Rohit Ashok

A2 - Sweetser, Penny

A2 - Obrist, Marianna

PB - ACM

CY - New York, US

Y2 - 13 June 2022 through 17 June 2022

ER -

Shorter M, Minder B, Rogers J, Baldauf M, Todisco A, Junginger S et al. Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities. In Mueller FF, Greuter S, Khot, RA, Sweetser P, Obrist M, editors, DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. New York, US: ACM. 2022. p. 1512-1524 Epub 2022 Jun 13. doi: 10.1145/3532106.3533519

Materialising the Immaterial: Provotyping to Explore Voice Assistant Complexities

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