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STUDY 02 / 02
INDEPENDENT STUDY · LH STUDIO · VOICE + AI
Consent-first
Voice
.
An in-vehicle voice assistant for seat heat and cabin
temperature — one utterance should finish a clear request,
and nothing gets saved without an explicit yes.
TYPE
ROLE
TIMELINE
METHOD
Self-initiated study, extending my Infiniti
QX Inspiration work
Designer — dialog design, prototyping
2026
AI-assisted prototyping (Claude, HTML) ·
four dialog iterations
1
2
3
4
5
QUESTION
RULES
GRAMMAR
PROMPTS
VALIDATION
"Make my side cooler."
Trip first, save second.
Four intents, few questions.
Short while driving, helpful when
parked.
How I'd test it.
01
"Make my side cooler" sounds simple. In a shared car
it raises three questions: who's speaking, which side
they mean, and whether a one-time change should
be remembered.
QUESTION
At Infiniti, I worked on a cabin where voice, screens and biometrics shared the work. This study
goes one level deeper on voice: a small, complete dialog model for two everyday tasks, built
and iterated as an interactive prototype.
A chatty assistant is its own kind of distraction. So the bar was: one utterance finishes a clear
request, the car asks a question only when something is missing, and recognising a voice or
face is never enough on its own to save anything.
02
Five decisions shape everything else in the dialog.
RULES
Every change lasts for the trip; saving is a separate step
TRIP FIRST
A recognised voice or face alone never saves anything
CONSENT
While driving: short replies, one retry, no save dialogs
ATTENTION
A passenger changes only their own side
PERMISSIONS
Physical controls always work — and voice points to them
RECOVERY
03
Four intents cover the scope. A missing required slot
gets one question; anything optional falls back to a
sensible default.
GRAMMAR
INTENT
REQUIRED
DEFAULT
SAMPLE UTTERANCES
Set seat heat
Level, 0–3
The speaker's seat
"Set my seat heat to level two" · "Passenger seat heat on high"
Set cabin temp
Value or direction
The speaker's side; 2 °F steps
"Make my side cooler" · "Set the passenger side to 74"
Warmer / cooler
Seat or cabin
None — the car asks
"Make it warmer"
Save preference
A recent change
The last change this trip
"Save this" · "Remember that"
At any point, "Never mind" ends the dialog with nothing changed, and "No, level one" right after a change corrects it without starting over.
04
While driving, prompts confirm the result in as few
words as possible. Parked, they add the next thing
you can do.
PROMPTS
MOMENT
WHILE DRIVING
WHILE PARKED
Seat heat applied
"Seat heat, level two."
"Seat heat is on level two for this trip. Say 'save this' to keep it."
Temperature applied
"Your side, 68."
"Your side is now 68 degrees for this trip."
Target unclear
"Your seat, or the cabin?"
"Your seat, or the cabin?"
Save asked
"Kept for this trip. I'll ask about saving when you're
parked."
"Save seat heat level two to your profile?"
Profile not verified
"I can't confirm who's speaking. Nothing saved."
"I can't confirm who's speaking. Choose your profile on the screen, then try again."
Passenger asks for driver
side
"I can change only your side from there."
"From the passenger seat I can change only your side. The driver can change
both."
REPAIR
RECOVERY
Re-ask only the missing piece
Never apply a guess
One retry while driving, two while parked. A retry never restarts the whole request, and an
invalid level states the valid range.
After the last retry the car exits with nothing changed and points to the physical control: "Let's
leave it. You can also use the seat button."
FIG. 04 — RECOVERY EXIT WHILE DRIVING: ONE RETRY, THEN NOTHING CHANGED
05
VALIDATION
5–6 drivers
IDEALLY DRIVER + PASSENGER PAIRS
Ask for each task in their own words first
LOG EVERY PHRASING
Warm, cool, save, recover after a mishear
5 TASKS
Turns per task, wrong changes, recovery exits
MEASURES
WHERE IT STARTED — INFINITI QX INSPIRATION
Next step.
1
turn to finish a clear request - and zero saves without a yes
OPEN QUESTIONS
What the test would answer
Do people say "my side" or "driver side"? Is "your seat, or the cabin" the right clarifying question? Does the save offer after parking feel helpful or nagging?
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