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Esther Liu Nha Pham Omar Ortega Andrew Burda
Project Manager Lead UI/UX Designer Primary Researcher Secondary Designer
Apple
Shortcuts
Redesign
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are now using smart speaker technology, according to AARP.
As of 2022, almost 95 million digital assistants have been sold.
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USER - CENTERED DESIGN PROCESS
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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Unable to recognize more than one language simultaneously.
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Users must manually set their preferred language in settings.
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Available languages offered in different accents
Recognizes informal speech to an extent/
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Includes incomplete sentences
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Registers, but searches up unfamiliar terms
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Stops “listening” after request is complete
Offers voice shortcuts for several functions and questions.
After saying “Hey Siri”
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Additional detailed, internal shortcuts
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External shortcuts: Shortcuts app
Unable to recognize 1+ language simultaneously.
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Offers voice assistant in multiple languages that must be indicated by the user.
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Translations based on recognizing parallel sentences
Recognizes informal speech with query reformulation.
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Smart Assistant believes it understood the user, and ends prompt before the user finishes.
Offers voice shortcuts for communication: calling, texting.
After saying “Hey Google”
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User able to personalize shortcuts in settings
Recognizes 1+ language at a time.
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Speaks in 8 different languages
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Understands some phrases in different languages but answers in the set language.
Recognizes informal speech to an extent.
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Includes incomplete sentences as a quick response
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Adapts to the user’s dialect
Offers voice shortcuts for several functions and questions.
After saying “Alexa”
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User says “Wikipedia <topic>”
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Responds with a few sentences on that given topic
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Asks if you wish to learn more.
Able to respond to 1 language only
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Users must manually set preferred language in settings.
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Accents are still an issue
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Can set Cortana to ‘learn’ mode to help expand vocabulary
Recognizes informal speech to an extent
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Severely limited in its response.
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Informs users when it doesn’t understand input
Offer voice shortcuts to open apps, type to text, create alarms, etc.
After saying “Hey Cortana”
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Users can create and configure custom commands and run scripts
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Issues With Voice Assistants
Despite its convenience, audio-to-text applications have prevailing issues.
Unable to adapt to language variances
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Accents
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Pronunciation Differences
Transcribing inacurate messages. Users have different levels of
technical proficiency
Inability to edit
transcribing errors
when user is occupied
Example Scenario
While driving, Vivian remembers that she needs to dethaw the frozen meat. She tells Siri to text her daughter, "to take out the meat". However, Siri mishears and texts, "take out the feet" instead. Vivian is upset.
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“Adults over 65—a demographic expected to double between 2010 and 2050—tend to give up on using voice assistants after several unsuccessful attempts at getting their questions answered.”
What does this mean?
Technology is scary and foreign to individuals who cannot understand it immediately. The problem is that many users, in this case, users over the age of 65 would rather give up than learn how to navigate through technology.
How can we make
voice assistants elderly-friendly?
Shortcuts is an Apple application that allows users to create visual scripts to simplify the steps needed to complete a task. Shortcuts allow users to customize actions that allow their phone to automatically perform it when activated. Our team will utilize the Siri action to recreate common tasks a elderly user would perform with Shortcuts.
The current state of the Shortcuts app is complex for a new elderly user, making creating a new shortcut as confusing.
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Don’t know where to begin
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Too much information
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Confusing jargon
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In our sketches, we focused on reducing clutter, creating an organized interface, and implementing intuitive icons.
Users are able to set up custom prompts through voice assistants to complete specific tasks.
Our goal is to improve the IOS Interface without sacrificing the usability and existing features of the Shortcut application.
Organized the headers and categories
→ All vs. My Shortcuts so there are only two categories
→ Not dumping info on the user(one thing at a time to not overwhelm users with too much information)
Remove the back Shortcuts arrow
→ Unnecessary homepage of a homepage
→ Arranged icons in a more intuitive way
Replacing computational jargon of "if-then" statements with more user-friendly wording
→ Inspiration from block-coding that children use to learn programming, where you drag and drop commands of everyday language
→ Our block coding concept integrates an “implied if statement” based on the causal relationships of Siri’s actions.
→ The consistency and uniformity of these commands (starting with “Siri [VERB]”) follow our goal to give users new info one at a time
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In this phase, we focused on creating a sitemap that continued the ideas we expressed in our sketches.
We introduced our low-fidelity prototype to four participants. These participants were all university students. Our goal was to identify complications in our current design before we proceeded with the final high-fi prototype.
Our interactive prototype was created in Figma. We were able to collaborate and view our design proccess through Figma. Check out the different tasks we created!
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Final Reflection
Our redesigned app utilizes basic language and simplistic features to allow users with limited tech knowledge to navigate through the app with ease.
As the lead designer, I enjoyed transforming my team's sketches and ideas into interactive, high-fidelity prototypes. I was surprised to see Apple's Shortcut application because it strayed away from Apple's theme for production with minimalism. I've always enjoyed using Apple products because of their inclusive design. Their design is friendly towards users of all technical fluency. Apple is able to still provide highly functional devices with endless niches, without over-complexing their interface.
When redesigning Shortcuts, I wanted to maintain consistency within the application. If users are able to familiarize themselves with repeating elements, they'll be able to learn more easily. I wanted to transfer the minimalistic theme of Apple's other applications into Shortcut's interface. I understood that older users struggle to adapt to new concepts such as technology. Therefore, I identified confusing jargon and made sure the interactions were intuitive.
Speech Domain
Creating a shortcut through
speech–rather than manual
gestures.
Discoverability
Making the Shortcuts app more
known to the elderly population
as a helpful resource.
ROOM FOR IMRPROVEMENT
Elderly Needs
Conducting primary
research through increased
interviews with the target population.
Confidentiality
Giving the elderly confidence and
security for any privacy concerns
Team AISA's Pitch Video
A fun video we created to demonstrate our redesign for Shortcuts.
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