This week has been very informational with excellent conversations with professionals developing voice based applications. As an outsider, all the conversations started in the tentative mode. I need to get some insights and knowledge from the professionals in the world and not irreparably damage the relationship. The next objective was to get a buy-in for validation and if possible get a on-the-spot validation of my understanding of the space.
The part where we discussed the potential of the space was unanimous. Voice is seen as having the potential to change the way we interact with computers- no doubts about that. The momentum in the market is rapidly accelerating without a doubt. Alexa and Echo were truly the culprits that opened the floodgates to bring the innovations in voice to a wider audience attention. All this was very good news!
A typical example of the capability of voice in a car navigational system is when a driver is able to get the results of a multi-step point and click workflow completed with one request. The perfect value-of voice can be seen when a driver asks for "a 4 star or above rated Asian restaurant within 10 minutes"; and the system is able to parse out that this is a search for a restaurant around the current location, calculating for speed, traffic etc and filtering for cuisine and ratings to provide the most efficient options under the circumstances.
A good VUI design would take the means to the ends approach, whereas the "adapting controls to voice" approach would envision three or four back and forths. Understanding the point of interaction - find a decent place to eat and then solving for that need is the key to a successful VUI design. An approach not taken by VUI designers today.
Most product owners are content to make "voice" as one more "control" to navigate the clunky and intellectually dumbed down world of point and click. I have seen and read several lab experiments with primates on behavior- which use a very similar format across the board. A primate needs to accomplish a set of tasks starting with some trigger and following a pre-set sequence to be rewarded a treat. Most of the voice controls feel like sounds being the trigger and the tasks saying the same.
Product owners developing in the voice realm have to understand that with Voice, you have replaced the "ape" with a "human" and the experiment is over. You have to learn new things about motivating your subject and device new mechanics to deliver the treat. Failure to do so will turn your "human" audience into "apes" and they don't like that at all. You just end up causing a lot of frustration.
The part where we discussed the potential of the space was unanimous. Voice is seen as having the potential to change the way we interact with computers- no doubts about that. The momentum in the market is rapidly accelerating without a doubt. Alexa and Echo were truly the culprits that opened the floodgates to bring the innovations in voice to a wider audience attention. All this was very good news!
But
There had to be a catch. The development and design using voice was struggling with the mechanics of designing great user experiences. There were a lack of tools and the investments in using the tools to make voice work is so large that most product owners focussed very little time in revisiting the users. They were largely content in morphing the current controls to be activated by voice.A typical example of the capability of voice in a car navigational system is when a driver is able to get the results of a multi-step point and click workflow completed with one request. The perfect value-of voice can be seen when a driver asks for "a 4 star or above rated Asian restaurant within 10 minutes"; and the system is able to parse out that this is a search for a restaurant around the current location, calculating for speed, traffic etc and filtering for cuisine and ratings to provide the most efficient options under the circumstances.
A good VUI design would take the means to the ends approach, whereas the "adapting controls to voice" approach would envision three or four back and forths. Understanding the point of interaction - find a decent place to eat and then solving for that need is the key to a successful VUI design. An approach not taken by VUI designers today.
Most product owners are content to make "voice" as one more "control" to navigate the clunky and intellectually dumbed down world of point and click. I have seen and read several lab experiments with primates on behavior- which use a very similar format across the board. A primate needs to accomplish a set of tasks starting with some trigger and following a pre-set sequence to be rewarded a treat. Most of the voice controls feel like sounds being the trigger and the tasks saying the same.
Product owners developing in the voice realm have to understand that with Voice, you have replaced the "ape" with a "human" and the experiment is over. You have to learn new things about motivating your subject and device new mechanics to deliver the treat. Failure to do so will turn your "human" audience into "apes" and they don't like that at all. You just end up causing a lot of frustration.
Conversation Design
The whole purpose of Conversation Design was to recognize the intellect in your users and provide you with tools to design for that higher level of intellect.
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