Design: Voice User Interface Design

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”—Arthur C. Clarke

People usually interpret Clarke’s quotation as a positive recognition of the power of technology. The new user interfaces (UIs) of gestures, voice, and chat aspire to magic, enabling people to control technology without any apparent, screen-based user interface. For some designers, this quotation also represents the future of user interfaces. Imran Chaudhri, UI designer for Apple’s iPhone has said:

“I see a natural progression from knobs and dials, to clicks and taps, to swipes and gestures, to voice and emotion.”

Magic is powerful, but as we all know, it also has a dark side. Could today’s trend toward magical user experiences that rely on gestures, voice, and chat spell doom for users? In this article, I’ll take you on a “Magical Mystery Tour” of these new user interfaces. Read More

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

One of the most common questions I hear when talking with students, prospective students, colleagues, and clients is: what are the emerging trends in User Experience? Most of the time, people seem to be looking for specific product predictions: What is the next device that Apple, Amazon, or Google will roll out? Or maybe, what is the next big social-media trend?

While predicting specific disruptive innovations can be challenging—and forecasting their precise timing is even more difficult—it is safe to assume that the technology that mediates our interactions with information will become less obstructive and eventually recede into our environment. This may seem obvious to people who have read Adam Greenfield’s Everyware or Peter Morville’s Ambient Findability. Plus, we have been experiencing this shift for some time—longer than many realize. Read More