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How do we live in the omnipresence of voice assistants?

The VA-PEPR research project looks into how voice assistants (VAs) change our practices and routines in everyday life within the context of Switzerland.

This interdisciplinary research project is conducted by Hochschule Luzern (HSLU), OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule and Northumbria University under the lead of HSLU School of Art & Design. It is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

[…] But, I am slowly building a relationship with it. He’s slowly becoming a part of my everyday life, he gets up with me, he’s there, he gives me the news, he makes sure I’m entertained with music.

Participant 14

Latest from us

Project Workbook #1 and #2

Project Workbook #1 and #2

VA-PEPR Workbook #1 and #2 -the detailed overview of the project- is published. 

Register for TALKING AI event

Register for TALKING AI event

Everyone is talking AI – but do you actually know what it is capable of? How do virtual assistants and…

Policy, Design & AI Workshop

Policy, Design & AI Workshop

Research by the VA-PEPR team points to an ever-closer interrelation of the design of policies and services for everyday use…

Annual meeting of Municipality Emmen

Annual meeting of Municipality Emmen “Vision Emmen 2033”

“Vision Emmen 2033” – Together with the people from the municipality of Emmen, we are looking to a possible future

“Überblick” – a new provotype using OpenAI

The new “Überblick” prototype developed by the project team led by Michael Shorter and Melanie Rickenmann can do so much…

Embracing digital offboarding as a design challenge

Embracing digital offboarding as a design challenge

Paper presented at the IASDR 2023 Conference: Life-Changing Design in Milan, Italy

Victoria and Albert Museum featured VA-PEPR Project

Victoria and Albert Museum featured VA-PEPR Project

As part of the London Design Festival, VA-PEPR participated in the Digital Design Weekend 23

Privacy Intermediaries: A Business Model Perspective

Privacy Intermediaries: A Business Model Perspective

Paper presented at the 24th International CINet Conference Conference in September 2023 in Linz, Austria

Innovating for Sustainable Use: The Different Faces of Trust in Private Household Technologies

Innovating for Sustainable Use: The Different Faces of Trust in Private Household Technologies

Paper presented at the 24th International CINet Conference Conference in September 2023 in Linz, Austria

“What did you say?” Workshop at MuC23 in Rapperswil, Zurich

Exploring the potential and challenges of voice interfaces

Focus Group Lugano

Focus Group Lugano

Workshop sull’utilizzo di assistenti vocali in casa propria. Ti invitiamo a partecipare!

VA-PEPR went to Hong Kong!

VA-PEPR went to Hong Kong!

Giving Form to the Invisible: Can we make in-home network data traffic tangible to users?

VA-PEPR's Interactive installation

VA-PEPR’s Interactive installation “Money Talks” showcased at re:publica 23, in Berlin

Money Talks is an installation that surfaces our power and financial relationships with voice driven AI services.

Analysing the Use of Voice Assistants in Domestic Settings Through the Lens of Activity Theory

Analysing the Use of Voice Assistants in Domestic Settings Through the Lens of Activity Theory

Paper accepted for the 25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

VA-PEPR Project Meeting in Scotland

VA-PEPR Project Meeting in Scotland

Northumbria University hosted the 5th project retreat in Anstruther, Scotland

VA-PEPR presented at CHI'23 Workshop

VA-PEPR presented at CHI’23 Workshop

Short paper accepted for the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Workshop

User Perceptions and Attitudes in the Data Economy and their Contradictions

User Perceptions and Attitudes in the Data Economy and their Contradictions

Study presented at the 16th International Conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, in Venice, Italy

Co-organized Workshop for CHI 2023 Hamburg

Co-organized Workshop for CHI 2023 Hamburg

Designing Technology and Policy Simultaneously: Towards A Research Agenda and New Practice

Voice assistants in private households: A conceptual framework for future research in an interdisciplinary field

Voice assistants in private households: A conceptual framework for future research in an interdisciplinary field

Journal article published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Using Voice Assistants in the Home Office: Friend or Foe?

Using Voice Assistants in the Home Office: Friend or Foe?

VA-PEPR featured in the HR-Profi magazine: Virtuelle Assistenten: Freund oder Feind im Homeoffice?

Digital natives aren’t concerned much about privacy, or are they?

Digital natives aren’t concerned much about privacy, or are they?

Journal article published in i-com

Speculating Voice Assistant Futures - Workshop at IxD23 Zurich

Speculating Voice Assistant Futures – Workshop at IxD23 Zurich

What would a possible de-centralised future of voice assistants look like?

VA-PEPR Science Café at SUPSI

VA-PEPR Science Café at SUPSI

The first Science Café took place at SUPSI (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland) in Mendrisio

Our in-home study results

Our in-home study results

A brief summary of the results of ethnographic phase can be found here

Alexa, It’s Me! An Online Survey on the User Experience of Smart Speaker Authentication

Alexa, It’s Me! An Online Survey on the User Experience of Smart Speaker Authentication

Study presented at Mensch und Computer 2022 Conference, in Darmstadt, Germany

Dissemination of ethical outcomes of the project kicked-off

Dissemination of ethical outcomes of the project kicked-off

Two research articles presented at the Ethicomp 2022 Conference in Finland

Value in Digital Technologies and Services

Value in Digital Technologies and Services

Paper presented at the 16th International Conference of Knowledge Management in Organisations 2022 in Hagen, Germany

Participation at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS’22) 

Participation at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS’22) 

Results of the speculative design workshops presented by Dr. Mike Shorter and the team

Voice Assistant Use: Challenges for the Home Office Work Context  

Voice Assistant Use: Challenges for the Home Office Work Context  

Dr. Jens O. Meissner and the team participated at the EURAM 2022 Conference in Winterthur, Switzerland 

Speak up! Exploring Decentralised Voice Assistant Futures through Speculative Design

Speak up! Exploring Decentralised Voice Assistant Futures through Speculative Design

VA-PEPR contributed to the re:publica 22 with a Speculative Design Workshop  

Speculative Design Workshop at Mozilla’s Ethical Dilemma Café

Speculative Design Workshop at Mozilla’s Ethical Dilemma Café

VA-PEPR participates in the Ethical Dilemma Café

HSLU Learning Safari: VA-PEPR presentation to newcomers

HSLU Learning Safari: VA-PEPR presentation to newcomers

Aurelio Todisco presented the VA-PEPR at the HSLU Learning Safari ‘Onboarding’, a 1-day programme for the new employees.

“Hey Google! Risks and Opportunities of Using Voice Assistants”

Dr. Sabine Junginger gave a talk at the 51. Fachveranstaltung organised by Netzwerk Risikomanagement in Olten on March 17, 2022.

Power to the People: Using Mobile Diary Apps to Collect Ethnographic Data

Power to the People: Using Mobile Diary Apps to Collect Ethnographic Data

Dr. Aysun Aytac presented the data gathering method used in the in-home studies.

Alexa! What will the weather be like tomorrow?

Alexa! What will the weather be like tomorrow?

Article in the “Tagesanzeiger” about our research project

Voice assistants in the family can have their pitfalls

Voice assistants in the family can have their pitfalls

Article in the St. Galler Tagblatt about the VA-PEPR research project

LUASA investigates the effects of voice assistants on social life

LUASA investigates the effects of voice assistants on social life

Article in the “Luzerner Zeitung”

Does she speak?

Does she speak?

Hochparterre talks about our research project

How Siri, Alexa and Co. are transforming our everyday lives: HSLU leads project on voice assistants

How Siri, Alexa and Co. are transforming our everyday lives: HSLU leads project on voice assistants

Medienmitteilung der Hochschule Luzern zu unserem Forschungsprojekt

«We may soon be treating voice assistants like pets»

«We may soon be treating voice assistants like pets»

The HSLU University Magazine interview with project leader Prof. Dr. Sabine Junginger

Why do we want Alexa in the living room? A large-scale, interdisciplinary study finds answers.

Why do we want Alexa in the living room? A large-scale, interdisciplinary study finds answers.

Article by the future lab CreaLab of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts about our research project.