Cell Phone Experiment: Speech, Complexity, and Driving

Speaker
Sara Kiesler and Susan Fussell
Professor and Systems Scientist, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

Cell phones offer vast possibilities for obtaining and using information while mobile, but present major design challenges. Small displays, limited input capabilities, and divided attention, together, can combine to reduce usability and safety. We studied one aspect of this problem—whether speech and text output, as compared with text alone, could improve performance on hotel reservation tasks while using a cell phone. Participants retrieved simple and complex hotel information, while stationary and while driving, using text alone and speech plus text output. Participants strongly preferred a text interface when stationary and a speech interface when mobile but their task and driving performance suffered on average with the speech option in this study. The data, however, also show there is potential for designing improved multimodal interfaces to aid performance of complex tasks when people are driving. We suggest research and design directions.

Speaker's Bio

Sara Kiesler does research on the social and behavioral aspects of computers and computer-based communication technologies. Among her current projects are HomeNet, a study of the personal and social effects of household technology and the Internet, a project on multi-disciplinary collaboration and distributed work, and a project on social and cognitive factors in people’s interactions with autonomous robotic assistants.

Susan Fussell conducts research on face-to-face and computer-mediated communication. Current projects focus on the role of shared visual information and gesture in collaborative work and on the development and use of shared mental models in co-located and distributed work teams.