A girl playing on a quest 2 headset with an overlay from the messenger app virtual reality.

AI & Voice on Messenger in VR/AR/Quest

Exploring the role of AI-driven voiceinter actions in Virtual and Augmented Reality, focusing on usability, adoption and design opportunities.

tl;dr

Voice interactions in VR/AR face adoption hurdles
Legal & privacy constraints in combination with usability issues such as design inconsistencies and poor immersion hinder growth. Without addressing these challenges, voice interactions risk staying underutilized, missing their potential to create a seamless, intuitive experience.

Key Outcomes

Roadmap Priorities Influenced
  • 54% of high-priority initiatives for H2 2022 were driven by my research.
Increased User Adoption
  • New voice users grew by 30% as a result of a single UI change.

My Role

  • Sr User Researcher
  • Project Manager

Timeline

1 year, 2 months
“Rigorous, detailed and thoughtful approach to studies”
- Brandi Sr. UXR (Ex-Microsoft)

Overview

As part of strategic planning at the start and half of the year, I addressed low usage and tested multiple design concepts, collaborating with product managers, designers, engineers, and researchers to define key questions and design studies that would yield the most impactful insights during the half.
Annual & Half-Annual Strategic Planning
Identified Key Research Queries
Drive High Impact Studies

Problem

Voice interactions in VR/AR face major hurdles, from high user drop-off during onboarding to limited third-party developer support due to uncertain adoption trends.
Legal and Privacy constraints add complexity to legacy interactions, making it harder to refine the experience. Further, there’s been little foundational research, with internal studies at times reinforcing biases and external research being scarce due to the newness of voice in VR/AR.
Usability issues, like inconsistent design patterns and poor immersion, further hinder adoption. Without addressing these challenges, voice interactions risk staying underutilized, missing their potential to create a seamless, intuitive experience.
adoption / retention of voice users
Limited foundational research
design inconsistencies

Goals

Usability

  • Identify design barriers hindering speech-to-text adoption.
  • Evaluate usability heuristics in speech-to-text interactions.
  • Apply correct design patterns for different contextual scenarios.
  • Assess first-time user perception of privacy and disclaimer notices.

Strategy

  • Ensure relevance and broad appeal of speech-to-text experiences.
  • Provide direction for stakeholders on privacy and legal concerns.

Future Studies

  • Identify opportunities to enhance user education.
  • Expand knowledge base of non-VR application of speech-to-text.
  • Lay the groundwork for future reseach, inlcuding methodology, timing, and logistics.

Analytics

  • Improve measurement and analysis of user behavior.
  • Establish usability benchmarks for specific scenarios.
“Empathetic, collaborative and a mentor to others”
- Sr. UXR, Meta (Ex-Target)

Stakeholder Collaboration

Collaboration and partnership with stakeholders is key to identifying and working on efforts that have the highest potential for impact. This work starts with relationship building and understanding how performance is being gauged for the target domain.

My broad experience working in product and software development allows me a deeper understanding of how to approach this work, what kinds of questions to ask and how to communicate with stakeholders in these roles.
Product Managers
designers
engineers
data scientists
research partners
legal and privacy

Execution

Studies and scope of work performed.
A breakdown of the work done at the study level.

Key Responsibilities

Key insights shared with stakeholders

Presenting essential findings to relevant stakeholders for informed decision-making.

Advocate and Promotion of Insights

Promoting and endorsing valuable insights beyond immediate contexts to influence broader domains and to support gloabal practices.

Expanded Perspectives

Offering insights on specific aspects to various audiences through tailored presentations.

Collaborative Perspectives

Collaborating with fellow researchers to provide comprehensive viewpoints and insights to broader audiences.

Contributions to Research Libraries

To increase exposure and support progress through continued studies, research libraries provide broad access and a reference point for other researchers.

Deliverables

Key insights shared with stakeholders

Presenting essential findings to relevant stakeholders for informed decision-making.

Advocate and Promotion of Insights

Promoting and endorsing valuable insights beyond immediate contexts to influence broader domains and to support gloabal practices.

Expanded Perspectives

Offering insights on specific aspects to various audiences through tailored presentations.

Collaborative Perspectives

Collaborating with fellow researchers to provide comprehensive viewpoints and insights to broader audiences.

Contributions to Research Libraries

To increase exposure and support progress through continued studies, research libraries provide broad access and a reference point for other researchers.

Impact & Outcomes

54%
Roadmap Priorities
High-priority roadmap initiatives were driven by my research, with my studies cited as justification.
30%
Increased Adoption
New Speech-to-Text users from a single UI finding, not on the radar, but identified by my research.
Novel Findings
1/3 of findings from high-priority roadmap items were novel findings; creating awareness and clarity, allowing the team to make decisions.
UI Enhancements
Updates and refinements in the UI, both concept and in-market.
Strategic Alignment
Insights shaped broader discussions on voice technology, guiding half-planning for product managers, designers, researchers, engineers and data science.
XFN Impact
My studies became a key reference for voice-based design decisions in other domains including future products; augmented reality and wearables.
“Scalable and long-lasting insights that are still used by cross-functional partners today”
Sr. Product Manager Meta (Ex-Amazon)

Reflections

Working in this domain uncovered numerous insights that sparked new research questions and design opportunities. While the studies drove meaningful impact, there are additional areas I would have liked to explore further.

The following topics deserve more understanding:
Additional user behaviors influencing AI, Speech-to-Text and auto-suggestion adoption in more contexts, including VR / AR.
Context-based optimizations for voice interactions.
Concept testing of specific design solutions centered on hypotheses derived from previous studies.
This experience provided valuable lessons in navigating complex cross-functional collaboration, addressing KPIs through strategic planning, designing for voice interactions, and identifying research opportunities that drive strategic impact.
"An example of what UXR should be"
- Sr. Product Manager, Meta (Ex-Amazon)
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tl;dr
Overview
Goals
Stakeholders
Execution
Deliverables
Outcome