Family-shared AI assistant design for reinforcing the family bond

Abstract

AI assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have recently become popular in family homes. AI assistants in the form of a speaker often are placed in a shared environment, which provides completely new types of user experiences from personal assistants. However, many families fail to use their AI assistants consistently due to the barriers of interactions in a multiuser context. In this regard, this dissertation aims to investigate the ways to support users' experience with AI assistants focused on the family home context as a multiuser intimacy group regarding family values. To find the essential design directions and considerations of the family-centered AI assistant, user studies were conducted to investigate the user experience and user expectations. Based on the results, the design guidelines for a family bond-reinforcing AI assistant were developed. The value of design guidelines was evaluated from consolidating the perspectives of designers and family users. This research contributes to user experience design research and design practice as follows. First, this research proposed a perspective for introducing the AI assistant into the family home context as a shared technology. Second, this research identified three categories of family-centered roles of the AI assistant regarding family cohesion, and emphasized the potential of the family bond-reinforcing role to enhance family relationships and value. Third, this research proposed the design guidelines for family bond-reinforcing AI assistants, which would provide an overview of designing family-shared service domains as a principle framework. By providing design guidelines for supporting family-shared experience regarding family values, the results of this research are expected to contribute to informing the design of the AI assistants that perform a family-centered role.