Voice Interfaces in Everyday Life

TLDR

Voice User Interfaces are increasingly ubiquitous in smartphones and home assistants, yet how users weave them into everyday social interactions remains underexplored. The study aims to document how users of Amazon Echo integrate VUI use into the complex social life of the home. The authors collected and analyzed audio from month‑long Amazon Echo deployments in participants’ homes, guided by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. The data reveal that the Echo is integrated into conversational contexts such as family dinners, coordinating with the sequential organization of talk, and raise implications for accountability, request/response design, and challenge the notion of designing purely conversational interfaces.

Abstract

Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are becoming ubiquitously available, being embedded both into everyday mobility via smartphones, and into the life of the home via 'assistant' devices. Yet, exactly how users of such devices practically thread that use into their everyday social interactions remains underexplored. By collecting and studying audio data from month-long deployments of the Amazon Echo in participants' homes-informed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis-our study documents the methodical practices of VUI users, and how that use is accomplished in the complex social life of the home. Data we present shows how the device is made accountable to and embedded into conversational settings like family dinners where various simultaneous activities are being achieved. We discuss how the VUI is finely coordinated with the sequential organisation of talk. Finally, we locate implications for the accountability of VUI interaction, request and response design, and raise conceptual challenges to the notion of designing 'conversational' interfaces.