Voice User Interface Design VUI

And what better way to start this new season than with some linguistic fun. We all know the critical role they play in the world of speech and voice interactions, so I think this little homage is very well deserved.

I normally get my fair share of laughs (and tears) from listening to user call recordings and their experiences while using automated systems. But a friend of mine just sent me one from a user interacting with a call center agent. We all know that the use of jargon and technical terminology can cause confusion [...]

We’ve talked in the past about the use of speech recognition in the realm of note taking, where tools such as Jott allow you to obtain a text version of a voice message, making it easier to document and search for information. Well, Microsoft just recently unveiled a new application of speech recognition, but this [...]

The proverbial dilemma, user-centered design calls for simplicity, yet business requirements often conflict with that principle. The result? Watch, remember, and cry… Enjoy!

My appologies for being away for so long. Between the Holidays and the January blues, I’ve been crazy busy (which considering the current situation is something I’m thankful for). Some of those projects have brought in new pieces of information which I’m looking forward to share and discuss – multimodal design and usability, speech-recognition in [...]

I know we’re used to relate the notion of IVRs with arcane self-service over-the-phone systems and IVR jails, yet a company called Moshi found away to leverage the notion of “Interactive Voice Response” in a totally distinctive way. The Moshi IVR Alarm Clock is the first one to my knowledge that allows you to set [...]

As I mentioned here and here, one of the most appealing aspects of the G1 phone is the openess of the platform which allows developers to get really creative when it comes to apps that leverage all the features contained in the phone. One company worth mentioning is JOYity which was recently covered by TechCrunch. [...]

Wow, it seems politic uses for the phone aren’t just limited to campaign messages and voting reminders. (DISCLAIMER: This note is not intended to promote a particular party or candidate, I’m simply using it as a case-study for interesting uses of the phone for UI purposes) Just today I received an email from Sarah@PalinTalk.net with [...]

That’s right! Big news over the past couple of days due to the launch of the $179 T-Mobile G1 device, the first commercially available “Google Phone” in the market. As usual, David Pogue did a great review of the new phone that even tough clearly “borrows” many features from the iPhone, it also takes advantage [...]

Wow, as someone that loves to see old technologies and principles being applied in creative (and unexpected) new ways, I have to say I was definitively impressed by Dialtones (A Telesymphony). As designers, we always struggle with the balancing act of attempting to create new “works of art” that follow some basic principles, yet attempt [...]