The Elements of Voice First Style: A Practical Guide to Voice User Interface Design

Cover
Copyright
Table of Contents
Preface
	Who Should Read This Book?
	Why We Wrote This Book
	Navigating This Book
	O’Reilly Online Learning
	How to Contact Us
	Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Why Voice First
	Eyes-Free
	Hands-Free
	Ephemerality
	Wealth
	Passivity
	Minimal Effort
	Broadcasting
	Nonliteracy
Chapter 2. When Voice First
	Environment
	Content
	User State
		Physical State
		Competency
		Availability
		Willingness
	Channels
	Some Scenarios
		Scenario 1
		Scenario 2
		Scenario 3
Chapter 3. Why Voice First Automation
	Reduce Costs
	Handle Spikes
	Increase Customer Satisfaction
	Increase Agent Satisfaction
	Increase Revenue
	Enable Personalization
	Facilitate Task Completion
	Secure Privacy
	Increase Security
Chapter 4. The Three Core Characteristics of the VUI
	Time Linearity
	Unidirectionality
	Invisibility
Chapter 5. The Elements of Conversation
	The Ontology of Conversations
		Participant
		Statement
		Turn
		Conversation
	The Conversational Actions
	The Conversational States
	The Internal Conversational Context
	Conversational Signaling
		Signaling States
		Signaling Transitions
Chapter 6. The Rules of Conversation
	The Cooperative Principle
	The Maxim of Quality
	The Maxim of Quantity
	The Maxim of Relevance
	The Maxim of Manner
Chapter 7. The Basic Tenets
	The Voicebot Is Not a Human
	The Voicebot Should Be as Smart as the Data It Has—and No More!
	The Voicebot Should Be Consistent
	The Voicebot Should Be Transparent
	The Voicebot Should Behave Respectfully
Chapter 8. The Extra-Conversational Context
	The State of the User
		Emotional State
		Linguistic Competence
		Level of Familiarity
		Technical Savviness
		Physical Readiness
		Task-Relevant Properties
	The Physical Context
	The Social Context
	The Recent Context
	User Patterns
	User-Base Patterns
Chapter 9. The UI Use Case Fit
	An Illustrative Use Case
	Basic Heuristics
Chapter 10. The Elements of Starting
	Be Brief
	Use an Audio Icon
	Drop the “Welcome to…”
	Never Ever Say, “Please Listen Carefully as Our Options Have Changed”
	Have the Voicebot Refer to Itself in the First Person
	Drop “You Can Interrupt Me at Any Time”
	Keep the Origination Context in Mind
	Remember the User’s Preferences
	Anticipate User-Specific Requests
	Anticipate General User-Base Requests
Chapter 11. The Elements of Prompting
	Prompt Types
	Writing Effective Prompts
		Use Language That Is Commonly Used in Conversations
		Remember That the User Will Mimic the Voicebot
		Unless It’s Essential to the Use Case, Don’t Use Slang or Jargon
		Put the Most Important Information First
		Use Want Instead of Wish
		Avoid Using Speak
		Use Contractions
		Be Consistent in Your Wording
		Avoid Mixing Recorded and TTS Speech
		It’s OK for a Sentence to End in a Preposition
		Avoid Using Whom
		Minimize the Use of Please
		Use Incremental Prompts When Dealing with Expert Users
		Use Tapering Prompts to Minimize on Wordy Repetitions
		Request an Explicit Confirmation Only When Necessary
Chapter 12. Choices
	Present the Most Requested Items First
	Keep the Menu List to Three Items or Less
	Keep the Menu Depth to Three Levels or Less
	Avoid the Construction of “for/to X, Say X; for/to Y, Say Y; for/to Z, Say Z”
	Don’t Use, “Please Select from the Following Options”
	Use the Same Part of Speech/Clausal Form When Listing Menu Options
	Let Users Ask, “What Are My Choices?”
	Let Users “Climb Back” the Menu
	Offer to Repeat the Menu Options After a 3-Second Pause
	Turn on Barge-In for Expert Users
	Include and Teach Shortcuts
Chapter 13. Managing Failure
	Types of Failure
		No-Input
		No-Match
		Misrecognition
		System Failure
	Causes of Failure
		No-Input
		No-Match
		Misrecognition
		System
	Best Practices
		Always Have the Voicebot Take the Blame
		Give the User Three Chances
		Offer Explicit Examples of How to Respond
		Be Careful When You Reprompt
		Establish “Safety Points”
		Never Terminate a Conversation Unilaterally—Especially During Recovery
		Don’t Be Repetitive During Recovery
		Orient the User About Where They Are
		Give the User Information About the Issue
		Do Not Be Overly Apologetic
Chapter 14. Help Strategies
	Tell the User That Help Is Available
	Detect When the User Needs Help
	Structure Your Help
		Mention the Basic Task the Voicebot Is Trying to Solve
		Offer Help to the Most Frequently Encountered Problems First
	Return from Where You Left Off After Giving Help
	Be Concise and Specific with Your Help
	Use Context to Guide Your Explanations
	Illustrate Your Explanations with Examples
	Offer Help Only When It Is Needed
Chapter 15. Verbal Dialogue Marking
	Acknowledge Receipt of Information
	Announce That the User Is About to Receive Some Information
	Mark Sequences
	Mark the Beginning and End of a Section
	Mark Failures
	Show Light at the End of the Tunnel
	Indicate Implicitly That the Voicebot Still Owns the Turn
	Tell the User Explicitly That They Are Being Placed on Hold
	Don’t Repeat the Same Marker Twice in a Row
	Pay Attention to the Markers After a Failure Strategy
Chapter 16. Nonverbal Dialogue Marking
	Types of Nonverbal Audio
	Opening the Dialogue
	Signaling That It’s the User’s Turn to Speak
	Signaling That the Voicebot Is Busy Doing Something and Is Holding the Turn
	Waiting for the User to Give an Answer
	After a No-Input
	Announcing a List of Choices
	Entering a New Section
	Marking Transition from One List Item to the Next
	Announcing Help
	Ending the Conversation
Chapter 17. Language Design
	On “Naturalness”
	Key Terms
	Designing an Effective Language Model
	Clearly Define the Problems That Your Voicebot Can Help the User With
	Communicate Why the Voicebot Exists and What It Can Help the User Do Outside of the Voicebot
	Spend Time Building a Clean Ontology
	Do Not Design Your Language from the Armchair
	Go Explicit When Recovering from a Language Error
Chapter 18. On Silence
	Prior to Listing Options
	Between Options in a Menu List
	Between Categories of Options
	When Interacting with Power Users
	After Echoing
	Before and After TTS Prompts
Chapter 19. The Elements of Closing
	Allow the Users to Explicitly End the Dialogue
	Allow the User to Request a Human
	When the User Has to Wait, Provide a Waiting Time Estimate
	Provide the Option to Cancel a Transfer to a Human
	Keep the “While-You-Wait” Audio Relevant
	Understand the User’s State of Mind When You Play the “While-You-Wait” Audio
	Never Say, “Your Call Is Important to Us”
	Don’t Make the User Repeat to the Human Information They Provided to the Voicebot
	Make the Human Agent Aware That the Customer Was Interacting with the Voicebot
	Avoid Transferring Users from One Voicebot to Another
	Don’t Play Phone Rings Unless You Are Transferring Directly to a Human
	Reassure Users of Success
	Don’t Provide Any Crucial New Information
	Give the User a Quick Tip
	Offer to Reach Back
Chapter 20. Voice First Notifications
	Fundamental Considerations
	Key Notification Attributes
		Notification Urgency
		Notification Content
		Delivery Context
	Key Form Factors
		Far-Field Voice
		Near-Field Voice
		In-Ear Voice
	Some Best Practices
		Be Mindful of the Receiver’s Time Zone
		Provide Some Context
		Cut to the Chase
		Repeat the Important Information
		Provide the User with a Way to Get More Details
	Some Scenarios
		Scenario 1
		Scenario 2
		Scenario 3
Chapter 21. Laying Out the Foundations
	Bring Together All the Key Players
	Define the Business Goals
	Define User Needs and Intent
		Identify User Tasks
		Identify Usage Patterns
	Define the Voicebot’s Voice Register
Chapter 22. The Key to Successful Product Launches
	Write Everything Out in Full Sentences
	Your Press Release Needs to Be Crystal Clear
	Your Answers Are Given in One or Two Paragraphs at Most, and Not Much More
	Answer the Basic Questions First
	Describe Clearly the Research You Have Done
	Be Modest and Cautious in Your Claims and Statements
	Make Your Document Readable by Everyone
	List the Functional Requirements in Terms of What the User Can Do
	Describe the Intended Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in Detail
Chapter 23. The Elements of Deployment
	Product Management
	Product Marketing
	UX Research
	UX Design
	Development
	Quality Engineering
		Functional Testing
		Traversal Testing
		Stress Testing
		Beta Testing
	Program Management
Chapter 24. Post-Launch Monitoring
	Sources of Information
		Interaction Logs
		The Audio of the Interactions
		End Users
	The Basic Questions
		Where Are Users Abandoning the Session?
		Where Are Users Asking to Be Connected to a Human Agent?
		Where Are Users Saying the Wrong Things?
		Where Are Users Not Saying Anything?
		Where Are Users Speaking Too Soon?
		What Is the Noise Level of Your User’s Environment?
		What Options Are Your Users Asking For?
		How Are Users Feeling About the Voicebot?
Chapter 25. The Elements of Voice First Success
	Abandonment Rate
	Automation Rate
	Average Number of Failures per Session
	Average Number of Failures per Task
	Average Task Completion Time
	Containment Rate
	First-Use Resolution Rate
	Task Completion Rate
	Task Initiation Rate
	Time to Task
Chapter 26. Coda
Appendix A. The 10 Sources of Voice First Failures!
Appendix B. Demonstrating Voice First
	Remove All Prompts That Explicitly Talk About Failure
	Don’t Speak Over Prompts
	Don’t Have the Voicebot Talk for More Than 10 Seconds When It Starts Without Giving the Turn Back to You
	Test the Voicebot with the Same Equipment You Will Use in the Demo
	Have Two or Three Backup Ways to Demo the Voicebot
	Test the Application in the Same Room and Environment Where You Will Do the Demo
	Know How to Gracefully End a Telephony-Based Voicebot
	Ask for Silence
	Never Improvise or Show Off While Demoing
	If, for Whatever Reason, the Voicebot Fails, Be Honest About Why It Failed
	No Cheat Sheets!
	Speak Normally
	Don’t Leave Long Silences Between Words When You Speak
	Keep It Really Short
Appendix C. Useful Matrices
	The Assessment Matrix Cheat Sheet
	Value-Usability Matrix
	Feature Expectation Matrix
	Automation-Complexity Matrix
		Quadrant 1
		Quadrant 2
		Quadrant 3
		Quadrant 4
A Voice First Glossary
References
Index
About the Authors