Confidential

Retire the Horse and Buggy:Opening a New Era for Voice Interaction Design

Phillip Hunter

Confidential

Company Overview

Rapidly growing software company

• Software + Services

• On-demand and on-premise managed service

• Founded in 2001; NYC-based

Experts in speech science, software engineering, advanced voice interaction design

Processing millions of calls every month for 5 of the top 6 US cable operators

Engage caller in speech dialogs that average 6-8 minutes!

SpeechCycle is the leading provider of 3rd Generation Speech Technology for digital service providers

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Glory Days

SpeechCycle - Building a premier design team to design the most complex speech applications in production

14 years in development and design of apps - 10 years in speech development and voice interaction design - Building 3rd design team

Intervoice, designoutloud, VoicePartners

2004 SpeechTek Persona of the year

Client in 2005 CIO 100 due in part to speech app

Patent for caller goal tracking

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Talk Talk

Voice interaction design Vitally important to application success

Challenging and controversial

Done with widely varying quality.

Few and often incorrect standards.

Objective quality is difficult to measure.

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What Are Words For?

It’s time for something new

New things are made from old

This is a challenge: “Good enough never is” (Debbie Fields)

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Tomorrow

“The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad.“

President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Horace Rackham (Henry Ford's lawyer) not to invest in the Ford Motor Company in 1903

"The automobile has practically reached the limit of its development."

Scientific American, 1909

The Car

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Cars

From outsourcing horsepower…

=>

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Cars

To simplifying construction…

Ford’s Model T

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Cars

To the design “revolution” of the 1930’s.

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Words Get In The Way

Horse and Buggy ≠ DTMF or “press or say” apps

Horse and Buggy = Holdovers of Early 90’s Design Methods

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Spirits in the Material World

Model T = “standards”-based instant apps

Keeping the spirit of the horse and buggy alive

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Voices Carry

Menus with 5 or more items

Lengthy intros

Inappropriate personas and poor voice talent coaching

Just what is your Father’s Oldsmobile?

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Lengthy help tips that every caller hears before they can say a word

Ubiquitous use of “Main menu” anchoring

Terrible concatenation

Just what is your Father’s Oldsmobile?

Voices Carry

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Gratuitous “help”

Confusing and ambiguous wording

Strange design strategies

Just what is your Father’s Oldsmobile?

Voices Carry

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Overly long queries

Fill-in-the-blank apps

Just what is your Father’s Oldsmobile?

Voices Carry

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Bumps and bruises and cries of agony

Always Something There to Remind Me

gethuman.com, consumerist.com, nophonetrees.com

Fast Company: The Agonies of Lewis Black“The beginning of the end of customer service… was when they took the simplest service of all--'Hi, I need a phone number'--and put a machine in.”

NPR: Improving Customer Service Over the Phone “The growing use of automated attendants has not improved service”

MSNBC: CEOs think customer service is great “nearly 6 in 10 respondents told researchers they were somewhat upset or

extremely upset with the way their most recent customer service experience was handled”

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Let’s Go

Appreciation of the situation

Voice interaction design requires a design talent for human spoken dialog

“Listeners and talkers cannot suppress their natural responses to speech, regardless of source.” – Nass, Brave

Deep sensitivity to interactive language, not just knowledge of app recipes or top ten lists

Solutions are often non-obvious

No longer a technology problem“Voice interfaces are intrinsically social interfaces.” – Ibid.

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Listen and reflect

The real people around us

Transcribe others and yourself

Commonly used strategies

Let’s Go

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Evangelize the customer

Spread the good news of good design

Explain voice interaction patiently Boxing – jab, hook, uppercut

Fight for good design

Use data and examples

Let’s Go

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Put the buggy in the museum and the horse out to pasture

Examples of things to stop doing Long pauses around greeting and language selection Poorly coached talent 25 - 40 seconds before caller can talk Only NL offered Crammed menus (Nine! 16!!) Unclear modality (DTMF, spoken digit, NL!, Directed!) Confusing cohesion

Others “Please choose from one of the following” “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand you.” “Sure, here’s some help. You must enter the account

number.”

Let’s Go

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Let’s help each other Internal and external peer interaction and reviews

Professional, separate, usability testing and heuristic evaluation

Read Obvious: Voice User Interface, Wired For Speech Stretch: Design of Everyday things, psycho-linguistics

Get involved in the larger interaction design community UPAssoc.org, ixda.org, goodexperience.com

Classes HCI and design degree programs, local CHI courses,

Learning conferences

Reach for a higher standard – Push!

Let’s Go

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How Will I Know?

The revolution will be publicized

Open prompt – increased stagnating performance by 10% “To begin, briefly describe the problem, saying something like

'I can’t get on the internet". Or you can say 'What are my choices.' [> 2 seconds] So go ahead and describe the problem.”

Mobile phone provider – appropriate persona, 3 month ROI

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How Will I Know?

The revolution will be publicized

Troubleshooting application – streamlining modem reset for 30% less handling time (78 seconds down to 45)

Mobile phone provider – easier representation of multiple navigation options: Help Me With Something Else

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Things Can Only Get Better

We are supposed to be providing a service.

There are those who think that success is beyond us or just want to see this fail

Advance the general field of interaction design and HCI

Fight the forces of evil and chaos

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How Soon Is Now?

Maybe this isn’t so hard

Maybe it’s supposed to be this way

But, I don’t think so. We can do better and should.