Voice User Interface

Voice User Interface

A Voice User Interface (VUI) makes human interaction with computers possible through a voice/speech platform in order to initiate an automated service or process.

The VUI is the interface to any speech application. Controlling a machine by simply talking to it was science fiction only a short time ago. Until recently, this area was considered to be artificial intelligence. However, with advances in technology, VUIs have become more commonplace, and people are taking advantage of the value that these hands-free, eyes-free interfaces provide in many situations.

The VUI however often proves to be a major challenge. People have very little patience for a "machine that doesn't understand". Therefore, there is little room for error: VUIs need to be perfect or they will be rejected and often ridiculed by their users. Designing a good VUI is an art, which requires interdisciplinary talents of computer science, linguistics and human-factors psychology; skills that are expensive and hard to come by. Even with advanced development tools, constructing an effective VUI requires an in-depth understanding of both the tasks to be performed, as well as the target audience who will use the final system. The closer the VUI matches the user's mental model of the task, the easier it will be to use with little or no training, resulting in both higher efficiency and higher user satisfaction.

The characteristics of the target audience are very important. For example, a system designed for the general public should emphasize ease of use and provide a lot of help and guidance for first time callers. In contrast, a system designed for a small group of power users (including field service workers), should focus more on productivity and less on help and guidance. Such applications should streamline the call flows, minimize prompts, eliminate unnecessary iterations and allow elaborate "mixed initiative dialogs", which enable callers to enter several pieces of information in a single utterance and in any order or combination. In short, speech applications have to be carefully crafted for the specific business process that is being automated.

Not all business processes render themselves equally well for speech automation. In general, the more complex the inquiries and transactions are the more challenging they are to automate and the more likely they are to fail with the general public. In some scenarios, automation is simply not applicable and live agent assistance is the only option. A legal advice hot line, for example, would be very difficult to automate. On the flip side, speech is perfect for handling quick and routine transactions, like changing the status of a work order, completing a time or expense entry, or transferring funds between accounts.

See also

*User interface
*User interface engineering
*Speech recognition
*List of speech recognition software
*Voice browser

External links

* [http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030127.html Voice Interfaces: Assessing the Potential] by Jakob Nielsen


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Voice User Interface — Der Begriff Stimmliche Benutzerschnittstelle (SBS, engl. voice user interface, VUI) bezeichnet in Anlehnung an eine grafische Benutzerschnittstelle die Benutzeroberfläche von Sprachdialogsystemen. Stimmliche Benutzerschnittstellen kommen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Voice User Interfaces — Der Begriff Stimmliche Benutzerschnittstelle (SBS, engl. voice user interface, VUI) bezeichnet in Anlehnung an eine grafische Benutzerschnittstelle die Benutzeroberfläche von Sprachdialogsystemen. Stimmliche Benutzerschnittstellen kommen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • User Interface Modeling — is a development technique used by computer application programmers. Today s User Interfaces (UIs) are complex software components, which play an essential role in the usability of an application. The development of UIs requires therefore, not… …   Wikipedia

  • User interface — The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation …   Wikipedia

  • User Interface — Dieser Artikel oder Abschnitt bedarf einer Überarbeitung. Näheres ist auf der Diskussionsseite angegeben. Hilf mit, ihn zu verbessern, und entferne anschließend diese Markierung. Hi …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • User interface — Dieser Artikel oder Abschnitt bedarf einer Überarbeitung. Näheres ist auf der Diskussionsseite angegeben. Hilf mit, ihn zu verbessern, und entferne anschließend diese Markierung. Hi …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Touch user interface — A Touch User Interface (TUI) is a computer pointing technology based upon the sense of touch (haptics). Whereas a graphical user interface (GUI) relies upon the sense of sight, the TUI enables not only the sense of touch to innervate and activate …   Wikipedia

  • User experience design — is a subset of the field of experience design which pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user s perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting all aspects of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Natural language user interface — Natural Language User Interfaces (LUI) are a type of computer human interface where linguistic phenomena such as verbs, phrases and clauses act as UI controls for creating, selecting and modifying data in software applications. In interface… …   Wikipedia

  • Voice browser — A voice browser is a web browser that presents an interactive voice user interface to the user. In addition, it typically provides an interface to the PSTN or a PBX. Just as a visual web browser works with HTML pages, a voice browser operates on… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”