(2017-04-30) The New Skeuomorphism Is In Your Voice Assistant

The New Skeuomorphism is in Your Voice Assistant. Killing skeuomorphism made us feel very smart about ourselves. We finally don’t need glossy buttons to understand something is tappable!

But is skeuomorphism really dead? Well, no. Skeuomorphism is alive and this time it is invisible

The new skeuomorphism lives inside your voice assistant (smart speaker): Your Amazon Echo, Google Home, your phone. You call it Siri, Alexa, or Cortana.

The human assistant as metaphor. (Intelligent Software Assistant)

With voice as interface the topic of the psychology of robotics becomes relevant. Similar to conversational interfaces, voice can trigger an emotional response by suggesting interaction with another human being.

The value of the voice assistant is not determined by its level of realism in mimicking the human.