Understanding Technology as Situated Practice: Everyday use of Voice User Interfaces Among Diverse Groups of Users in Urban India
Open accessAbstract
As smartphones have become ubiquitous across urban India, voice user interfaces (VUIs) are increasingly becoming part of diverse groups of users’ daily experiences. These technologies are now generally accessible as a result of improvements in mobile Internet access, [-8.5pc]Biography is Required. Please provide. introduction of low-cost smartphones and the ongoing process of their localisation into Indian languages. However, when people engage with technologies in their everyday lives, they not only enact the material attributes of the artifact but also draw on their skills, social positions, prior experience and societal norms and expectations to make use of the artifact. Drawing on Orlikowski’s analytical framework of “technologies-in-practice” we engage in an interview-based exploratory study among diverse groups of users in urban India to understand use of VUIs as situated practice. We identify three technologies-in-practice emerging through enactment of VUIs on users’ smartphones: looking up, learning and leisure. We argue that – instead of asking why and how users appropriate VUIs – identifying different kinds of enactments of VUIs present researchers and practitioners with a more nuanced understanding of existing and potential use of VUIs across varied contexts.
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Efforts to provide embodied human characteristics that enable greater social presence range from giving devices artificial limbs to replicating the human face and voice.
“Efforts to provide these embodied human characteristics that enable greater social presence reportedly range from giving devices artificial limbs (i.e. robots) [34] to replicating the human face [86] and voice [89].”
From Amazon Echo Show as a Multimodal Human-to-Human Care Support Tool within Self-Isolating Older UK Households (2022) · cites this paper as [34]
The Introduction (page unavailable) describes voice user interfaces, spoken interactions and conversational agents, supporting the voice-device example attached to [89]. It does not say that these devices replicate the human voice or that doing so increases social presence. The citations for limbs and faces are separate and are not assessed here. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPrior research on cultural reception of speech recognition has primarily studied communities who consider English as their second language.
“an area which up until this point has primarily been studied in HCI among communities who consider English as their second language (e.g., [35, 52]).”
From "It's Kind of Like Code-Switching": Black Older Adults' Experiences with a Voice Assistant for Health Information Seeking (2022) · cites this paper as [52]
Sections 5.2.1 and 5.3.1 study how multilingual users in urban India use voice interfaces and navigate English and vernacular speech, so this paper is a relevant example. But the paper does not say its participants consider English their second language; its participant description says the higher socioeconomic group was primarily English-speaking. This individual study also does not establish that HCI research has primarily focused on such communities. The supplied passages have section labels but no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPrior research on code-switching with voice-controlled assistants has observed users' need to code-switch as the most prominent theme.
“This research has engaged with primarily non-White, educated, affluent, or STEM-educated technology users and has observed users’ need to code-switch as being the most prominent theme, which is considered switching between multiple languages, when interacting with smart devices that employ automated voice responses [35, 52].”
From "It's Kind of Like Code-Switching": Black Older Adults' Experiences with a Voice Assistant for Health Information Seeking (2022) · cites this paper as [52]
Section 5.3.1, “Speaking in ‘mixed’ Language” (page unavailable), reports that respondents mixed languages when using voice interfaces and expected the interfaces to understand them. It calls multilingualism and code-mixing important to their use, but does not identify a need to code-switch as the most prominent theme. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredResearch on CAs is a rapidly growing field, with an increase in publications over the last few decades, especially fueled through the development of CAs such as Amazon's Alexa that build upon voice as a modality.
“Research on such agents is a rapidly growing field, with an increase in publications over the last few decades, especially fueled through the development of CAs such as Amazon's Alexa that build upon voice as a modality, so called voice bots (Schmitt et al., 2021;Seaborn et al., 2022;Kendall et al., 2020).”
From Charting the Evolution and Future of Conversational Agents: A Research Agenda Along Five Waves and New Frontiers (2024) · cites this paper as Kendall et al., 2020
Nowadays, many people cannot imagine a life without conversational agents like Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri.
“Nowadays, many people cannot imagine a life without CAs like Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri (Kendall et al., 2020).”
From Charting the Evolution and Future of Conversational Agents: A Research Agenda Along Five Waves and New Frontiers (2024) · cites this paper as Kendall et al., 2020
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References 57 · Cited by 37
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Cockburn, C. (1983). Brothers. Boulder: Westview Press Inc.
- Authors
- Kendall, L., Chaudhuri, B., & Bhalla, A.
- Affiliations
- Sheffield Hallam University (GB)
- International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Kendall, Linus
- Chaudhuri, Bidisha
- Bhalla, Apoorva
- Venue
- Information Systems Frontiers
- Published
- 2020-06
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 585-605
- ISSN
- 1387-3326 (ISSN-L)
- 1572-9419
- OpenAlex
- W3034142844
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 3.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Information Systems Frontiers (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- SHURA (Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive) (Sheffield Hallam University) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
- Keywords
- voice user interface, situated practice, smartphone use, everyday technology use, urban India, low-cost smartphones, mobile access, learning, leisure
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