Voice as a Design Material: Sociophonetic Inspired Design Strategies in Human-Computer Interaction

Selina Sutton; Paul Foulkes; David Kirk; Shaun Lawson

doi:10.1145/3290605.3300833

Voice as a Design Material: Sociophonetic Inspired Design Strategies in Human-Computer Interaction

Selina Sutton, Paul Foulkes, David Kirk, Shaun Lawson

Computer and Information Sciences Department

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

63 Citations (Scopus)

65 Downloads (Pure)

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 field of sociophonetics - the study of the social factors that influence 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 influenced the ideologies of language, the voice outputs of VUIs will influence the ideologies of speech. Based on our argument, we pose three design strategies for VUI voice output design - individualisation, context awareness, and diversification - to motivate new ways of conceptualising and designing these technologies.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19)
Subtitle of host publication	May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK
Place of Publication	New York, NY, USA
Publisher	ACM
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450359702
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300833
Publication status	Published - 2 May 2019
Event	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019: CHI’19 Workshop: HCI in China: Research Agenda, Education Curriculum, Industry Partnership, and Communities Building - Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: 4 May 2019 → 9 May 2019 https://chi2019.acm.org/ http://chi2019.acm.org

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019
Abbreviated title	CHI 2019
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Glasgow
Period	4/05/19 → 9/05/19
Internet address	https://chi2019.acm.org/ http://chi2019.acm.org

Keywords

Voice user interface
sociophonetics
design material
experience-centered design
computer synthesised speech

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10.1145/3290605.3300833

Sutton et al Paper 7405 Voice as a design material CAMERA READYAccepted author manuscript, 451 KB

Cite this

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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 field of sociophonetics - the study of the social factors that influence 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{\textquoteright} 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 influenced the ideologies of language, the voice outputs of VUIs will influence the ideologies of speech. Based on our argument, we pose three design strategies for VUI voice output design - individualisation, context awareness, and diversification - to motivate new ways of conceptualising and designing these technologies.",

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note = "ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019 : CHI{\textquoteright}19 Workshop: HCI in China: Research Agenda, Education Curriculum, Industry Partnership, and Communities Building, CHI 2019 ; Conference date: 04-05-2019 Through 09-05-2019",

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Sutton, S, Foulkes, P, Kirk, D & Lawson, S 2019, Voice as a Design Material: Sociophonetic Inspired Design Strategies in Human-Computer Interaction. in Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19): May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK., 603, ACM, New York, NY, USA, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 4/05/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300833

Voice as a Design Material: Sociophonetic Inspired Design Strategies in Human-Computer Interaction. / Sutton, Selina; Foulkes, Paul; Kirk, David et al.
Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19): May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2019. 603.

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

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Voice as a Design Material: Sociophonetic Inspired Design Strategies in Human-Computer Interaction

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