5. The car is a different place
“It’s always right here…It’s in my bra…I don’t have time to be
digging in my purse...My girlfriends all do it now too…”
[Stop]
6. Devices create seams
Devices & services don't play nicely together
Passing information between devices is difficult
9. Tasks Performed In The Car
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Make/AnswerCalls
GetMaps/Directions
FindLocalBusiness
GetWeatherReports
GetTrafficReports
GetTextMessages
SendTextMessages
GetNewsReports
AccessMyCalendar
GetMovieTimes
ReadEmail
SearchWeb
WriteEmail
GetSportsScores
GetStockQuotes
CheckSocialNetworks
currently do in car would do in car w/ voice
Tellme Concept Value Test (November 2008); focus was on motorists who are also smartphone users.
17. Consider the entire interaction
Push to Talk
Push to Interrupt
Keyword to Wakeup
Visual & auditory feedback
18. 18Copyright 2008 Microsoft
Corporation, Confidential & Proprietary
Context
Physical
Emotional
Cognitive
Principles
JUST work
Info I need
Focus
Think beyond
speech
Get it
done
The car is becoming an increasingly complex environment, with more connected and in-dash devices. Today we want to get into the car – to see what people are really doing, understand the driver and discuss how designing for the car is different than designing for other spaces. This talk will cover ideas that help understand the car environment, evaluate some examples of where basic voice design principles are not being followed, and look at some of the new design principles emerging in this space.
Tellme was founded by Mike McCue in 1999 with a simple mission: To simplify everyday tasks, on everyday devices, with the power of voice. More than 40 million people use Tellme every month to reach the businesses and information they need on the phone and on the go. Businesses use Tellme to create a better experience for their callers. Tellme also improves the way phones connect people and businesseswith each other.In 2007, Tellme was acquired by Microsoft. One of the reasons MS purchased Tellme was because Tellme and Microsoft share a common vision around the limitless potential of voice as a way to find information, connect with people and enhance business processes, any time and from any device. Within Microsoft, we are a wholly owned subsidiary and report directly to Stephen Elop in MBD. Over the past 2 years since the acquisition, Microsoft has invested significant capital in Tellme and we continue to expand, innovate and improve our offering. For example, since the acquisition we have integrated the Microsoft Speech Recognizer into our platform and we are now the only on-demand voice platform that runs all 3 leading speech recognizers at scale answering millions of calls on each of them.
A lot is happening in the car today.Here’s a photo from the NY Times that I think is very telling. The car is becoming a more complex place and that has implications for anyone trying to design for this space.Today we want to get into the car – to see what people are really doing, understand the driver and discuss how designing for the car is different than designing for other spaces. Photo: NY Times, Bruce McCall
Physical space of the carEmotional state of the driverCognitive profile – what else is drawing the driver’s focus. We need to remember that as we get in the car, first and foremost the driver is in the car to go somewhere!
The car is a different place. It’s laid out differently – there is little permanent shelving and support for stowing. Often the glare of the sun makes it hard to see the screen.Compare making a call in your car with making a call in your living room. In the car, only certain items are reachable at any given time, and there are ergonomic limitations like this photo of a woman who can’t reach her pnd.Let me play you a clip on storing a cell phone in the car. People are resorting to McGyver like solutions in the car – to make themselves more comfortable or make tasks easier.
The physical space is encumbered my more and more devices. And there are physical and ergonomic issues with fixing, stowing and reaching these devices. These devices create what we’ve been calling seams – which we’ll talk more about – since the devices often don’t play nicely together, and passing information to and from devices in the car is difficult.
One way we’ve been talking about emotional state is through anxiety in the car. Lemme play you a clip from a driver who just got bluetooth in the car – Obviously her drive home is filled with a level of anxiousness to make sure she’s on time, or that there’s a plan in place to pick up the kids.Successfully designing in the car might mean helping to reduce stress. Recently, some of my colleagues and I organized a Motorist Scavenger Hunt and charted the anxiety level of one of the drivers as she completed a set of tasks. The driver was in an unfamiliar car trying to navigate to an unfamiliar place and had to use multiple devices throughout the drive to answer a call, look up a business and then navigate there. Sometimes it’s the seams between those devices that create stress. Sometimes it’s about the data itself. Think about spending 60 seconds to look up info on a PND and finding the business is too new to be in there. Other items that contribute to stress – think about the last time you were running late, or when you were driving in an unfamiliar area, or being lost.
So we’ve looked at the physical and emotional states and tried to identify some of the challenges we’re designing for. But we haven’t even explored the multi-tasking element which will help define the cognitive profile of the driver. Remember the driver is operating a piece of heavy machinery and much of their focus and attention is on driving. But drivers are doing a whole lot of other things in the car today too.Let me play you this clipPhoto of sign: Copyright: engadget.comPhoto of guy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kahala/2463864956/
So what are people doing in the car? Go through some high runners as below.Recent studies have found that 77% of drivers with smart phones have used it to email while driving. And the triple A reports from a survey that 50% of teenage drivers text while drivingFrom survey – what are people doing in the car: no surprises.In a survey conducted by Decipher, Inc. from March 20 – March 26, 2008 among a sample of 1,200 online adults (Consumer panel source: Greenfield Online)- Mix of agesMotorists - Drive at least 4 days a week AND 30 minutes per dayCell phone users – must have cell phone or other mobile device they use on regular basisWhat are you doing and what would you like to do? Motorists use “down time” in the car to engage in conversations with friends and family, or listen to music or other entertainment. Secondary activities include checking voice mail messages (62%), conducting business (46%), and texting (45%). Nearly 1/3 of motorists get directions, search for addresses/phone #s or check traffic conditions. Approximately 20% say they conduct more general searches for movies and obtain news information.Accessing address/phone, traffic, and weather information generates the greatest level of interest among those who don’t do it, but would like to perform these tasks while driving.In a survey this year by Nationwide Insurance, 72 percent of those responding acknowledged “driving while distracted.” - nytimes
Designing for the car has to have an eye towards solving pain points, AND limiting distraction. Here’s a video of someone trying to go back to where they started.Notice the ice cream sandwich, the people running across the street, the talking to a passenger which is often times part of the car environment. Some of the PNDs design create stress and pain points since text entry is often difficult and it’s often the case you don’t know how to spell restaurant names or street names, entry via a non-qwerty keyboard, or entry on PND's are in unnatural orderstreet first, address second
So how do you design for the car?What we’re finding is the car is different than anything we’ve designed for. We need to remember that:physical: the car is not your desk emotional: a trip in the car can be an anxious experiencecognitive: operating heavy machinery requires attention I want to spend the rest of the talk today talking through some basic UX principles for the car context.Our job as designers: - coordinate these interaction methods, minimize the seams - keep distraction at bay - KEEP DRIVER IN CONTROLBasic UX Principles apply
50% of cars today have a bluetooth connection to be able to make phone calls – not all speech. But these offering have been technology focused and as a result many of them are unusable. Here’s a clip from 2 people with speech systems in their car:Make it easy to answer phone calls, multi-task, integrate with other things going onSend that to my car Don’t overload information
We need to remember that people are driving from A to B. They are invariably multitasking. Anything that can be done to get quick, personalized information is a huge win. In this clip, we leverage gps to know where the caller is, and they’ve already set up where they work.Info – personalization – traffic to work – use info to decide – 2 ways to goLeverage contextual informationLocation!
Don’t overload the driver with information, make the choices in a menu clear, speak in the user’s languageHere’s a clip of someone trying to play Bruce Springsteen.Anyone know what the command is to actually play Bruce Springsteen – imagine trying to figure it out when speeding down the freewayUsing commands like usb – not helpfulWrite for the ear, not the eyeUsing jargonOverloading informationChunking commandsData reliability/performance has impactTTS
I know in the industry we always talk about task completion and time to task. In the car think about task completion as the number of steps, the number of glances away from the road, and safety first.We’ve seen research that says that drivers appear totolerate a voice interface with less than perfect reliability in the car. And the reason is when faced with few alternatives or non-safe alternatives then less than perfect is ok Let me play you a clip of someone who uses 511 a speech driven interface to get traffic. She’s more tolerant of using the same system when it’s through bluetooth/handsfree in the car.Be aware of time to task and number of steps but need to compare to alternativesTime to task may not be the most important thingSafetyNumber of glances awayResearch : Drivers appear to be able to tolerate a voice interface with less than perfect reliability.Why: When faced with few alternatives or non-safe alternatives then less than perfect is ok Characteristics of Voice-Based Interfaces for In-Vehicle Systems and Their Effects on Driving Performancehttp://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NRD/Multimedia/PDFs/Crash%20Avoidance/2007/DOT-HS-810-867.pdf
Consider the entire interaction and the entire interaction method. How does someone interact with a speech system in the car? Is it an open speech channel? Can drivers barge-in? Let me play you a clip of someone reacting to having to push a button on the steering wheel to barge-in and talk.Our job as designers: - coordinate these interaction methods, minimize the seams - keep distraction at bay - KEEP DRIVER IN CONTROL
So things we think about – how to integrate speech:Open channel How do you barge in?Press every time?Research showing measurable improvementsVoice-activated dialing vs. manual dialingNavigation with voice prompts vs. withoutCar manufacturers embracing bigger screens, touch inputImproved screen locationsHaptic dials, steering wheel input devices prevalent- Voice Activated Dialing – In a previous study, we found that drivers using a voice-activated dialing system made 22% fewer lane-keeping errors and 56% fewer glances away from the road than they did when they dialed the same calls manually (Jenness, Lattanzio, O’Toole, Taylor, & Pax, 2002). -
Speech is becoming more prevalent in the car today. Even the bare bones design that exists is changing people’s lives because it’s solving real pain points.I’d challenge the speech and design community to help push the auto industry forward to design better, useable and safe systems moving forward.