Intelligent Voice Assistants: A Review of User Experience Issues and Design Challenges.

In recent years, voice interfaces have become the primary interaction modality with virtual assistants. While such interfaces have been advertised as a natural way to communicate with virtual agents, research has highlighted a number of issues related to voicebased interactions. Despite the abundance of commercial voice assistants, the groundwork concerning how they should be designed is still missing. Therefore, the need emerges to face the specific challenges of this novel interaction paradigm. As a contribution to the debate, a literature review on domestic voice assistants has been performed. The review follows a framework structured around three lenses: theoretical discourse, user experience, ethical issues and concerns. As a result, six design challenges have been identified. Such challenges represent spaces where design can intervene to improve voice assistants and to mitigate some of the issues stemming from their current design.