As some of you might have seen in TV ads, Ford Motor Co. recently announced a partnership with Microsoft along with the availability of a new technology called SYNC that allows you to control your stereo and phone while driving simply using your voice.
What made this even more interesting to me was the fact that they are trying to reach the market by combining the ‘cool’ factor speech technology provides as well as by using some clever advertising partnerships to target specific demographics such as the engagement with Juanes to target Hispanics of Generation Y.
But advertising aside, one obvious challenge for UI designers has to be the design of these control and command interfaces since on one side we hear about the safety advantages of the use of voice vs. typing (see video below), but on the other we hear about all the research that has been done regarding cell phone use on the road which suggests “you’re better off drinking and driving than phoning and driving.” and showed that users are four times more likely to be involved in a crash.
With the advent of new mobile and multimodal solutions, it becomes apparent that good design and low cognitive load will play a critical role moving forward. So far no one has died from being misrecognized when asking for an account balance, but things might change if we eventually move towards something like hands-free driving (Caller: Stop. Car: Sorry, I didn’t get that.Caller: Stop!! Car: Sorry, I still didn’t get that. Crash!).