Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences

Voice user interfaces (VUIs) are becoming all the rage today. But how do you build one that people can actually converse with? Whether you’re designing a mobile app, a toy, or a device such as a home assistant, this practical book guides you through basic VUI design principles, helps you choose the right speech recognition engine, and shows you how to measure your VUI’s performance and improve upon it.

Author Cathy Pearl also takes product managers, UX designers, and VUI designers into advanced design topics that will help make your VUI not just functional, but great.

• Understand key VUI design concepts, including command-and-control and conversational systems
• Decide if you should use an avatar or other visual representation with your VUI
• Explore speech recognition technology and its impact on your design
• Take your VUI above and beyond the basic exchange of information
• Learn practical ways to test your VUI application with users
• Monitor your app and learn how to quickly improve performance
• Get real-world examples of VUIs for home assistants, smartwatches, and car systems

Table of Content

Chapter 1Introduction

A Brief History of VUIs

Conversational User Interfaces

What Is a VUI Designer?

Chatbots

Conclusion

Chapter 2Basic Voice User Interface DesignPrinciples

Designing for Mobile Devices Versus IVRSystems

Conversational Design

Setting User Expectations

Design Tools

Confirmations

Command-and-Control Versus Conversational

Conversational Markers

Error Handling

Don’t Blame the User

Novice and Expert Users

Keeping Track of Context

Help and Other Universals

Latency

Disambiguation

Design Documentation

Accessibility

Conclusion

Chapter 3Personas, Avatars, Actors, and VideoGames

Personas

Should My VUI Be Seen?

Using an Avatar: What Not to Do

Using an Avatar (or Recorded Video): What toDo

When Should I Use Video in My VUI?

Visual VUI—Best Practices

Visual (Non-Avatar) Feedback

Choosing a Voice

Pros of an Avatar

The Downsides of an Avatar

Conclusion

Chapter 4Speech Recognition Technology

Choosing an Engine

Barge-In

N-Best Lists

The Challenges of Speech Recognition

Data Privacy

Conclusion

Chapter 5Advanced Voice User Interface Design

Branching Based on Voice Input

Disambiguation

Handling Negation

Capturing Intent and Objects

Dialog Management

Don’t Leave Your User Hanging

Should the VUI Display What It Recognized?

Sentiment Analysis and Emotion Detection

Text-to-Speech Versus Recorded Speech

Speaker Verification

“Wake” Words

Context

Advanced Multimodal

Bootstrapping Datasets

Advanced NLU

Conclusion

Chapter 6User Testing for Voice UserInterfaces

Special VUI Considerations

Background Research on Users and Use Cases

Designing a Study with Real Users

Early-Stage Testing

Usability Testing

Performance Measures

Next Steps

Testing VUIS in Cars, Devices, and Robots

Conclusion

Chapter 7Your Voice User Interface IsFinished! Now What?

Prerelease Testing

Measuring Performance

Logging

Transcription

Release Phases

Surveys

Analysis

Tools

Conclusion

Chapter 8Voice-Enabled Devices and Cars

Devices

Cars and Autonomous Vehicles

Conclusion

Appendix Epilogue

Appendix Products Mentioned in This Book

Mobile Phone Assistants

Home Assistants

Toys/Other

Apps

Video Games

Watches / Bands

Cars

Appendix About the Author