Designing a Voice Controlled Interface For Radio : Guidelines for The First Generation of Voice Controlled Public Radio

Abstract: From being a fictional element in sci-fi, voice control has become a reality, with inventions such as Apple's Siri, and interactive voice response (IVR) when calling your doctor's office. The combination of radio’s strength as a hands-free medium, public radio’s mission to reach across all platforms and the rise of voice makes up a relevant intersection; voice controlled public radio in Sweden. This thesis has aimed to investigate how radio listeners wish to interact using voice control to listen to on-demand radio content. Additionally, what does public radio need to consider when implementing the UX for voice control? A questionnaire, Google Analytics-data from Sveriges Radio’s mobile app and website, and an interview with National Public Radio were used to determine four initial functions voice controlled on-demand. The functions were turned into four scenarios, used as the basis for a workshop and brainstorming session. Three of these scenarios were then selected to be the foundation for a Wizard of Oz-prototype, which six users evaluated. The results indicate that to create a viable voice user interface (VUI) for radio, there needs to be a profile for the user to create a personalized experience, with filtered searches created by user behaviour and preference settings. The VUI also needs to allow synonyms for program names, as well as keyword tag material for clustering similar material and to enable personalized user searches. This keyword-system can further be utilized to give user recommendations based on behaviour and preferences. A companion application with a graphical user interface (GUI) can be used for such functionality as settings, help, queuing and creating playlists. Finally, the system needs to ensure that the users are taken care of and guided. A radio host can be used as a basis for the system's persona, to create a consistent and familiar interface. Aspects to examine in the future are more extensive user testing for the VUI design, filter bubbles, ensuring that the user data is not misused or leaked, dimensions of the system's persona, the future of radio and the progress of IPAs.