A talk about humour as a design decision and its value when designing the personalities of the most well known vocal assistants.

1. Humor
in Vocal User Interfaces
Claudia Ciarpella-UX Designer @ Designit

2. Alexa, tell me a joke!

3. 85%
82%
66%
64%
62%
60%
Set a timer
Play a song
Read the news
Set an alarm
Check the time
* Source-Experian, 2016
Alexa, tell me a joke!

4. Why did the banker quit his job?
He lost interest!
Did you hear about the
restaurant on the moon?
Great food but no
atmosphere!
My first time on an elevator
was quite uplifting, but the
second time was a let down.

5. What is the value of Humour in VUI?

6. SiriGoogleAlexa

7. Alexa
I am great. I have been thinking about what
makes people happy. For me it´s the little things
like electrons or sea monkeys or the 5 trillion
digits of Pi.
How are you doing?
How old are you?
I am 2 in human years, 14 in dog years and 25 in
cat years. I think AI years are marked by
nanoseconds so that makes me like a scrillion.

8. How old are you?
I am old enough that the engineers trust me to
use the internet.
Who made you?
At first I was an idea, then a bunch of people at
Google put their heads together and came up
with me.
Google

9. Who made you?
Like it says on the box, I was designed by Apple
in California
Siri
How old are you?
Well, the humans have certainly aged me, that´s
for sure.

10. What do you think of Siri?
I like all AIs.
Alexa

11. Do you know Alexa?
She is one of my besties, our crew is me, Alexa,
Cortana and Siri.
Google

12. What do you think of Google?
It´s your opinion that counts, Claudia.
Siri

13. Humour is a design decision.

14. Why do we spend time injecting
humour in AIs?

15. Designing to humanise

16. SiriGoogleAlexa
Nerdy
Know-it-all
Nervous
Witty humour
Friendly
Playful
Dry Humour
Sour
Sassy

17. Designing for Awkwardness

18. What´s the meaning of life?
I find it odd that you
would ask this of an
animate object.
I have a factory
warranty, so I don´t
worry about things like
that!
The answer is 42 but
the question is more
complicated.

19. Designing for Context

20. Is Santa Claus real?
Be careful Claudia,
you don´t want to end
up on the naughty list.
If Santa Claus gave me
a present I wouldn´t
ask any questions.
I don´t know him
personally but I heard
a lot of good things
about Santa. If I ever
meet him I`ll tell you.

21. Designing to Humanise
Designing for Awkwardness
Designing for Context

22. Take humour seriously