Phase 3 - Speculative Design
Based on the results of the in-home study and rcc study the project team drafted, discussed and refined a variety of design responses, provotypes and design briefs. These were adressing different actors including users, designers and developers, policy makers and the community at large. The aim was to formulate expectations of how VAs ougth to be designed in order for them to be useful for people in everyday life at home and what VAs sould not be allowed to do under any circumstances.
Speculative design creates fictional artefacts that bridge the speculative and the everday ‘inviting publics to explore the implications of new developments across science, technology and politics, and unsettling tacit assumptions and social norms’ (Voss et al., 2015).
Provotypes
In design challenges the VA-PEPR team developped several provotypes which can act as props to imagine possible future of VA. These provotypes have been used in workshops and exhibitions to faciliate the discussion, e.g. exploring different scenarios and key social concerns related to emerging VA technology, privacy, practises and routines.
Provotypes are a tool that can help designers explore possible futures. If a prototype is a response to a design problem then a provotype is something that helps to define the problem or problems. They will challenge assumptions, they will shift our focus from the present to the future and the will ask some big “what if” questions.Workbook 1, VA-PEPR Study
Different provotypes developped around the topic “Confidence and Trust”
- At the IxD23 in Zurich in spring 2023 some of the provotypes were used to speculate with participants about Voice Assistants futures. Lead by the main question “What would a possible de-centralised future of voice assistants look like?”
- At the workshop “What did you say?” at the MuC23 in Rapperswil participants explored the potential and challenges of voice interfaces.
- The interactive installation “Money Talks” showcased at re:publica 23, in Berlin shows visually our power and financial releationships with voice driven AI services.
- The so called “Voice Matters” Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Design Museum in London (2023) combined the earlier “Money Talks” installation with ChatGPT to generate summaries and images about the spoken words.
- Additionally, two of the provotypes have been developped further and were tested out by participants of the in-home study at their own home setting.
WordCloud & Überblick In-Home Studies
Out of these provotypes we developped one usable device to test this in three households.
The so called WordCloud was able to listen to the conversations and created “Wordclouds” over a selected amount of time.
The further development of the WordCloud lead to the Überblick. This device is now contected with ChatGPT and have the ability to create summaries about the spoken content, as well as Haiku´s (a short poem) and can generate summarizing images.
These Überblick devices are now tested in two households.
The question is, who should adapt? Me to the device or the device to me?Participant 28