Embedded Customer Education

An interesting WSJ article (4/10/09, W13) by Christine Rosen explores "Machines That Won't Shut Up," an essay on the plethora of new technogies that are embedding speech, or even text-to-speech capabilities. The purpose of this embedded speech is not only educational (in terms of the machines explaining how something works), but performance-oriented as well, such as reading your email, notifying you of tasks. Regarding their usage in cars, the author suggests that these devices pose a significant distraction hazard, even if they are "hands free".

This article reflects the customer expertise model in our book, in terms of Embedded Tools, in which expertise is embedded in products in the form of textual, visual, or auditory prompts.