JADE NING


redesigning Amazon Alexa
voice interaction model



In this project, we dealt with the trade-offs between transparency and convenience.



Jade Ning / Jenny Zhang

December 2019





INTRODUCTION



In UI/UX design, trade-offs occur when one design choice is made over another. In these cases, designers operate in a grey area without a clear option. The trade-off between transparency and convenience is always hard to deal with.


For example, imagine that you are improving a grocery store phone application so that it is easier to use for senior citizens. One problem regarding transparency and convenience is the level of detail and clarity in product descriptions. Product description is important since it efficiently illustrates what the customer will be getting when buying a product. Therefore, this should be clear and concise, so that the customer will understand what the product is, hopefully at first glance.


Convenience is also important in this context. Though product description can show the customer exactly what they are buying, the description itself is not the most effective way to convey information because customers expect to understand the product right away. They do not want to spend a lot of time reading, figuring out what the product is, and deciding whether they want it. This is especially important for senior citizens since their eyesight and need for more intuitive tasks make clarity the number one value.


Between transparency and convenience, transparency is more important for product descriptions. Though a short, less detailed description is more convenient to read, people may miss some important information they need to know. This could lead to some problems later. On the contrary, if all the information is transparent enough, there will be more chance that people make decisions with full consciousness about what they are doing.


In this project, we are going to examine the transparency and convenience of Amazon Alexa and resign two interaction featuring the two characteristics respectively.



Designing Input for Voice Interaction



The trade-offs between transparency and convenience exist especially in voice input interfaces. Alexa is the voice assistant of Amazon. While interacting with it, we found that when you asked Alexa to put something in your cart, it is not clear what product the interface has found for you. For example, when I asked Alexa to add milk to my cart, it added Horizon Organic 1% Low Fat Milk, 8-Ounce Aseptic Cartons (Pack of 18) to my cart without even asking me how much milk do I want. This is prioritizing convenience since I don’t need to talk back and forth to Alexa to add some milk to my cart. However, it violates the transparency of the interface. The customers should have the chance to choose a specific item while interacting with Alexa. As a result, we decided to solve this problem by designing a new interaction model that prioritizes transparency.


Here is our state model for this interaction model.





High-fidelity prototype



Like many design choices, there are many iterations to a problem. Since there are different approaches to designing for transparency and convenience, we decided to also see what the interface would look like if we prioritized transparency so much that it infringes on convenience. What would be a good balance between the two values? Here is the state model for this interaction and the prototype we created using Actions on Google with Dialog Flow.





This interaction model makes clarity the utmost importance, while sacrificing convenience. Alexa goes through as many steps as needed for the customer to know exactly what is put into their cart. The customer is also making all of the decisions themselves, making it very clear that the product put into the cart will be exactly what the user expects. For example, the customer defines all the specific qualities of the product they have in mind, including quantity, brand, and price. The interface asks the user at every step to make sure the item is what the customer has in mind. This is beneficial since there will be no confusion at all during the process.


Focusing on transparency so much infringes on convenience, however. Even though, the process is made to be very clear, since there are so many steps, the user may feel that it is too time-consuming to be using such a process. The user would then decide to find more efficient methods. Moreover, the user may feel the steps to be redundant and after being asked questions in so many different steps, the user may want the interface to make some logical decisions for the user such as price range and brand, possibly based on past purchases or popular choices. Furthermore, the customer may not have decided on some qualities of a product and would like to trust the interface to provide a choice for them. For example, if the user wants to buy a pack of noodles, they may not know what brand of noodles would taste the best. Therefore, the user would expect the interface to provide an option based on good ratings and reviews. This would not only save time, but also make it more easier for the user to make decisions based on the products they are buying. This would be a good balance between transparency and convenience.



Jade Ning



jning01@risd.edu