Design: Voice User Interface Design

Voice user interfaces (VUIs) such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant have become some of the most useful products in common use. These products have become a very important part of numerous people’s daily lives.

These unique VUI devices and the powerful systems behind them enable users to easily interact with a variety of digital devices and apps using just simple voice commands. An efficient voice user interface can be easy to use, responsive, and even proactive.

If you’re still considering how these technological innovations can help human beings, continue reading this article to find out. Read More

In today’s world, users can not only control their smart home with voice commands, but gain access to almost any type of information or use their phone to make calls with the help of a voice user interface. Voice user interfaces (VUIs) are a game-changer in the realm of advanced UX design.

As users move from traditional touch user interfaces to more robust, speech-activated interactions, the future of VUIs is promising. VUIs have revolutionized the ways in which people interact with their devices, offering more natural, touch-free experiences. By utilizing continual advancements in natural-language processing (NLP) and speech recognition, VUIs are enabling a new era of conversational user interfaces. This article provides a detailed exploration of the potential positive impacts and current challenges of VUIs, along with several ways of adapting the full potential of UX design in designing voice user interfaces. Read More

Selected sections from Chapter 5 of Cathy Pearl’s new book Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences. 2017 O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Excerpts from Chapter 5: Advanced Voice User Interface Design

[This] Chapter [covers advanced] voice user interface (VUI) design [topics]. Here, we take a look at what will make [your VUIs] engaging, easy to use, and successful.

Siri and the Amazon Echo are both examples of popular VUIs. The Echo has recently received a lot of praise about its interface. Given that the two systems can do many similar things, why is the Echo often a better user experience? One reason is that the Echo was designed with voice in mind from the beginning—that’s its sole purpose. Siri, by comparison, is just one more way to interact with your iPhone. Read More