Visually impaired individuals face significant challenges in the kitchen due to the limitations of traditional cooking tools, which rely heavily on visual cues. Our goal is to better understand how these users interact with VUIs in kitchen environments and to design a solution that enhances and eases their cooking experience.
Our approach to this problem is broken into three milestones:
1. Understand and identify areas where a VUI scale can assist during meal preparation for visually impaired users
2. Develop a workflow with VUI scripts for evaluations
3. Iterate upon the voice user interface scripts, as well as produce a demonstration displaying the functionalities of the scale
Process and Activities
Goals
Guiding Questions
As a team, we conducted a literature review and examined various articles, publications, and guides to gain background knowledge on our users, explore established methods for visually impaired user groups, and tailor our interview questions. Listed below are some of our guiding questions throughout the first milestone:
1. What sort of strategies/tools help visually impaired people adapt to meal prep challenges?
2. For which aspects of prep and cooking do visually impaired individuals struggle the most?
3. How might we integrate VUI, and what are some aspects of integrating VUI successfully?
Journey Map
Our secondary research and interview insights informed our journey map. The structure of the final user journey map is reflective of distinct steps of mise-en-place — a structured culinary process of ingredient preparation that emphasizes gathering and ingredient preparation before the cooking process, which is a valuable approach for a VUI script tailored to blind users, as it foregrounds each step of a recipe in terms of distinct processes.
An iteration of the journey map created by the team
Process and Activities
Goals
User Flows and VUI Script
The user workflow is a process developed using our previous research for implementation into the VUI.. We developed two different user flows: the onboarding flow, where the user is walked through customizable settings for the scale, and post-recipe selection flow. These user workflows provided a framework for VUI scripting, which details the specific dialogue that could be announced at each step.
Example of user workflow created in Miro
Example of VUI script developed
Evaluating the VUI script
After developing the VUI script, the team needed to assess and self-evaluate the prototyped script to identify shortcomings within the user flow and familiarize ourselves before testing with our user group, so we conducted a bodystorming activity. To simulate the interaction between a user and the scale, one team member assumed the role of a user and another acted as the scale. The 'scale' read out the steps for a pre-selected recipe, while the 'user,' with limited vision and minimal guidance, interacted accordingly. The insights we gained from this activity informed our testing protocol and next round of iterations.
Process and Activities
Goals
Wizard of Oz Testing
The team conducted in-home testing with participants from our user group in order to observe their cooking process and identify any areas for improvement in our script. One team member posed as a scale and followed the initial prototyped script. Additionally, observing the interaction in person allowed us to make live adjustments. Throughout the process, a double-blind format was maintained for an accurate simulation of user interaction.
Participant searching for tools
Final Deliverable
To enhance the final version of the script and ensure it aligns well with our user group's needs, we revised multiple sections and introduced features that improved the user experience based on our testing insights. Given the unique nature of our project, which lacks a visual deliverable, the team decided on an animated video demonstration of our product and VUI script to effectively showcase the outcome of our project.
The video showcases:
1. An overview of the kitchen scale to illustrate conceptual usage and functionality
2. A visual walkthrough of the main flow of the user-scale interaction
3. Onboarding options and features designed for greater accessibility
Final video produced by Aashika Parekh
