Work

Exploring the Design of Human Speech Indicators to Enhance Waiting Experience in Voice User Interface

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Waiting for system loading is a common scenario that often diminishes user experience, leading to dissatisfaction. Well-established visual indicators like progress bars can not directly apply to the interactions with voice assistants (VAs) like Siri. As VAs continue to rise in popularity, this research aims to explore the design of auditory indicators, particularly human speech, for optimizing waiting experiences in Voice User Interfaces (VUIs). We first organized focus groups (N=35) to identify design considerations for speech indicators, uncovering design opportunities in integrating explanations and humor. Subsequently, we conducted an empirical study (N=30) to evaluate the effects of speech indicators with two levels of explanation and humor on the waiting experience, measured by attention, perceived time, pleasure, and overall satisfaction, during both short and long loading durations. Our findings suggest significant potential for incorporating explanations and humor into VUIs, offering actionable insights for designing effective speech indicators that improve waiting experiences.

Source: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

DOI: 10.1145/3706598.3713090

Authors: Wenan Li, Junnan Yu, Yehong Zhou, Jinlei Shi, Weitao You, Zhibin Zhou

Institutions: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Nanyang Technological University, Zhejiang University

Language: English

Topic: Usability and User Interface Design

Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Award: G6121165435