ACM Journal of
Data and
Information Quality
Providing Research and Tools
for Better Data
01 Emma Alexa (.) [ (1.0) play beat the intro
02 Carl [is it called beat the intro?
03 (1.9)
04 Alexa you want to hear a station for b b intro. [(0.4) right?
05 Emma [ no
06 (1.1)
07 Emma no (.) I don’t Alex(h)uh (0.5) (h)No,
08 (1.3)
09 Alexa alright.
Figure 3. Emma and Carl try to start a game called Beat the Intro.
ACM JDIQ is a multi-
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(line 07). We see this kind of repetition
and variation frequently when users are
trying to deal with trouble in use. Alexa
then responds with another similar
question-categorization, “I don’t have
the answer to that question” (line 09).
which emerge frequently to smooth
everyday interactions along [ 10]. This
emerges more broadly as a kind of
“politics of control” that is worked
out as part of the life of the home
theoretical research
to algorithmic solutions
Fragment 3. We want to draw
attention to the response from Alexa
on line 04 and what it lets Emma
do next after having instructed
Alexa to play Beat the Intro. The
device’s response here incorporates
a transcription of the result of its
speech-recognition process, “b b
intro.” Although it is actually a
mis transcription by the Echo in this
case, the response nevertheless builds
places to go with her next turn-at-talk,
so she repeats Susan’s instruction with
a slight variation: “Set a family quiz”
[ 3]. Competent conversationalists
routinely perform remedial action to
repair emerging misunderstandings
between themselves and others [ 7].
to empirical research
to experiential
evaluations. Its
mission is to publish
Liam attempts another variation that
displays his recognition of the situation
with its troublesome character and
transforms the attempt at a further
instruction to Alexa into something
amusing: “Please set a family quiz”
But voice-driven devices seem poorly
designed to live in this world of
constant “fixing,” and as a result it is
users of them who are thus seeking to
repair various sense-making problems
that are encountered.
high impact articles
(line 11). This differs from Fragment
contributing to the
field of data and
information quality (IQ).
1 slightly in that here Liam embeds a
humorous turn of phrase into something
designed for a response from the Echo,
the evidence of which is the shared
silence of 1.2s on line 13 (compare with
the absence of anything similar on lines
09–11 of Fragment 1). Finally, there is
another similar response from Alexa
and another even more pared-down
attempt from Carl: “Alexa, family quiz”
Next we want to contrast Fragment
2 with an alternate way these kinds of
designed requests and responses might
play. While what happens in Fragment
3 (Figure 3) below is also a “failure,”
it turns out quite differently for the
family. The family is trying a different
Alexa skill, a game of Beat the Intro,
which plays just the beginning of a song
and then players must guess the song or
artist name.
(lines 14 and 18).
This is an example of collaborative
repair by the family. Furthermore,
these collaboratively produced,
minutely varied repetitions of the
request to “set a family quiz” seem to
be closely aligned with the repeated
unhelpfulness of the responses from
Alexa. As a social environment,
home life frequently turns on offers
of help (both explicit and implicit),
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We think the concept of conversational
design needs to be revised, specifically
by talking about sequentially organized
moves around request and response.