Design: Voice User Interface Design

It’s a great time to be a voice user interface (VUI) designer. Voice user interfaces are becoming more and more common in our daily lives. To ensure great user experiences, it’s crucial that designers lead the way in this space.

Many visual designers and interaction designers who are interested in becoming VUI designers are well placed to switch from designing more traditional graphic user interfaces (GUIs) to designing VUIs. Although all UX design disciplines share certain principles, there are some things about VUI design that differ from GUI design for Web or mobile apps. In this article, I’ll cover the main things you should keep in mind when designing VUIs. Read More

Voice delivers the special power of human connection. According to data about how voice assistance is reshaping consumer behavior on Think with Google, 41% of people who own voice interfaces feel as though they are conversing with a friend or another person. These friends assist people in tasks ranging from checking the weather in the morning to switching the lights off at night.

We explored a voice intervention for the task of learning a new language and designed a Voice User Interface (VUI) called Chattie that helps language learners practice real-world conversations and, in turn, improve their vocabulary. When designing Chattie, we used various design methods and iteratively improved the user interface based on our learnings from multiple usability tests. Read More

In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our experts consider how user research and design for voice applications differs from research and design for traditional, graphic user interfaces (GUIs). First, our expert panel discusses the importance of deeply understanding the context in which people would use an application, as well as the behavior of those who would use it.

Our panel of experts also recommends that we accurately understand the problems a voice application can solve, so it is truly helpful rather than just a cute gimmick. The panel also explores how to collect data from users when you’re designing a voice system or training artificial-intelligence (AI) algorithms. Read More