Design: Voice User Interface Design

Selected sections from Chapter 5 of Cathy Pearl’s new book Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences. 2017 O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Excerpts from Chapter 5: Advanced Voice User Interface Design

[This] Chapter [covers advanced] voice user interface (VUI) design [topics]. Here, we take a look at what will make [your VUIs] engaging, easy to use, and successful.

Siri and the Amazon Echo are both examples of popular VUIs. The Echo has recently received a lot of praise about its interface. Given that the two systems can do many similar things, why is the Echo often a better user experience? One reason is that the Echo was designed with voice in mind from the beginning—that’s its sole purpose. Siri, by comparison, is just one more way to interact with your iPhone. Read More

In 2018, voice technology will go mainstream. According to comScore, in 2017, half of all smartphone owners used voice technology on their phones, with one in three using voice technology daily. Further, voice-first devices—which include smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home—are expected to cross a “critical adoption threshold” in 2018, and their growth is likely to accelerate in the coming years. As the market for voice-assistant applications and smart speakers continues to expand, brands must incorporate voice technology to stay relevant and competitive. However, brands have only a finite window for owning the voice user experience.

According to our research, 70 percent of smart-speaker owners have experienced problems or frustrations using their devices. Plus, 25 percent felt that these smart speakers were not designed with their needs in mind. The numbers were also troubling for third-party voice applications. The research found that 63 percent of those surveyed encountered some type of problem or frustration with these applications. In fact, 29 percent said they would delete an application with which they had a negative experience. Read More

The overarching theme of the second annual O’Reilly Design Conference was “Prepare to Design the Future.” The conference convened March 20–22, 2017, at the historic Westin St. Francis Hotel, on Union Square in San Francisco. Monday, March 20, provided a full day of tutorials, while the main conference took place on March 21 and 22. O’Reilly Media delivered a better conference experience than in 2016 and again provided very high-quality content.

In Part 1 of this review, I’ll cover the following aspects of the conference experience:

• Organization
• Content and Presenters
• Proceedings
• Venue
• Hospitality and Events
• Community
• Tutorials Read More