As VUI designers, we all struggle with how to make phone interfaces and self-service easier to use and more convenient for our users. So in a sense, we’ve become “phone slaves” – with the customers on one side, the business owners on the other, and the telephone limitations (such as its audio-only delivery) on top.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the challenge, especially when you can design and build something that is creative enough that it satisfies all those requirements without having to compromise.

So it’s nice when I run across things like GrandCentral, where someone provides us with a great tool, at a great price (free!), letting us have a single universal phone number that then makes all other registered phones ring (home, office, cell phone) making us accessible all the time, giving us freedom to choose how to answer the call, and even letting you forward an ongoing call to a different phone. There’s a very good video review at the NY Times.

Since it is VoIP based, you get other features such as being able to access voicemail over the web, record calls on progress (great for Usability tests , define your own custom greetings for each caller, and even letting you pick an Mp3 song your callers will hear while you pick up the phone. Sweet… give it a try!