Whether designing mobile apps or voice interactions, too frequently designers start with prototyping software instead of pencil and paper. This aspect of low fidelity prototypes is one I hope all UX designers take to heart. Concept testing with low fidelity WoZ prototypes could have saved them time and money.Īnother important benefit of using low fidelity prototypes is that users understand it’s an early-stage design and are more likely to provide honest feedback, that could potentially redirect your concept, instead of feedback that improves the concept as designed. We’ve had clients come to us with fully developed Alexa Skills they wanted to test in beta only to find that participants wanted different functionality from that brand’s Alexa Skill. Low fidelity is a great way to test concepts and validate your approach before you move too far down a particular path. Simply write some sample dialogs, set up your rooms, and run some tests. The key benefit of low fidelity WoZ sessions is that they’re easy and inexpensive to run. If your voice experience is built for another device type like a mobile phone or clock, a simple representation of that device next to the phone will suffice. The "Wizard" is using scripted replies to respond to what the participant says. Sitting nearby is a phone on ‘speaker mode’ with the “Wizard” (who’s in another room) speaking directly through the phone as if they were the voice assistant. In the room with the participant is a tennis ball canister wrapped in felt to represent a smart speaker. Low FidelityĪ low fidelity WoZ prototype might work as follows. Let’s take a look at how these work in practice.
#Wizard of oz code#
A high fidelity prototype could refine the process and scripts used to offer product reviews via email to the user.įor this reason, we typically recommend starting with low or medium fidelity prototypes and then moving to high fidelity prototypes once the idea is solidified, but before any code is committed.
TL DR The higher the prototype fidelity, the more expensive it is to produce and the more likely it is to surface insights that are about its usability instead of its utility.įor example, a low fidelity prototype may reveal that participants using a voice commerce app don’t want product reviews read to them by the device, but would instead prefer to have reviews emailed to them to read through later. No actual code is involved-just a “man behind the curtain” pulling the levers like the Wizard of Oz.Īs with prototypes for apps or websites, this type of research can be done at varying levels of fidelity, and there are reasons to use each depending on where you are in your product development process and what you’re trying to test. In another room, another member of the UX research team is controlling the device’s responses. Wizard of Oz can be used for virtually any interface but is particularly effective for prototyping AI-driven experiences because the range of system responses are virtually impossible to replicate with traditional prototyping tools and the cost of building a system just to test a concept is prohibitive.ĭue to the variety and complexity of AI-driven experiences, and because this topic comes up most frequently around conversational interfaces, I'm focusing this article on using the WoZ method for prototyping voice technology.Ī research session works like this: The UX Researcher is in one room with a participant who’s talking to a device that looks like a smart speaker or voice-enabled product. “Step this way, please, and I will tell you all about it.” “That was one of my tricks,” answered Oz.
“How was it you appeared to me as a great head?” “But I don’t understand,” said Dorothy, in bewilderment. It's a fantastic way to explore the experience of a complex, responsive system before committing resources and development time to actually build that system. Wizard of Oz (WoZ) is a method where participants interact with a system that they believe to be autonomous, but in reality, is controlled by an unseen human operator in the next room. Since Wizard of Oz is a methodology that’s less commonly known, we wanted to dive into what it is, how it works, and why we recommend it when you’re exploring voice products. As more clients come to us for our expertise in conversational interfaces and other AI-powered products, we’ve been recommending “Wizard of Oz sessions” more and more frequently.
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