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Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences
Voice user interfaces (VUIs) are becoming all the rage today. But how do you build one that people can actually converse with? Whether you’re designing a mobile app, a toy, or a device such as a home assistant, this practical book guides you through basic VUI design principles, helps you choose the right speech recognition engine, and shows you how to measure your VUI’s performance and improve upon it. Author Cathy Pearl also takes product managers, UX designers, and VUI designers into advanced design topics that will help make your VUI not just functional, but great.
275 pages, Paperback
Published January 24, 2017
121 people are currently reading
373 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 19, 2017
This book covers a broad area in voice user interface design, drawing the author's experience from IVR as well as the her current work at Sensely designing virtual nurse avatars. This book would be a good resource for someone new to conversational UI and voice design, since it covers a full spectrum of the work involved. However, I was disappointed as the lack of depth in each area. I personally didn't find anything insightful.
Nevertheless, this field is quite new and there are not many good books covering the design aspect. I am glad that someone is writing a book about it.
Nevertheless, this field is quite new and there are not many good books covering the design aspect. I am glad that someone is writing a book about it.
May 23, 2018
Probably most valuable as an overview for folks with no voice design experience. More experienced folks may get some tips out of it like I did and appreciate seeing the outline of someone else’s process.
However, it refers so heavily to Voice User Interface Design that I’m not sure this book stands on its own. Most of the time when I wanted to go deeper, the author said some version of, “For more info, go there.” I guess I know what I’m looking for next.
However, it refers so heavily to Voice User Interface Design that I’m not sure this book stands on its own. Most of the time when I wanted to go deeper, the author said some version of, “For more info, go there.” I guess I know what I’m looking for next.
February 2, 2022
Great way to enter the qorld of Voice User Interfaces, to understand the politics the procedures and thw types of mixes that we make to actually run VUI’s for other a must read if you are in the field
June 13, 2020
It's shameful that I've been working as a conversation designer for a couple of years without reading this book, but I'm so glad to be reading it now. I definitely recommend it to anyone working with conversational interfaces, whether voice or chat.
I'd also recommend it to anyone working in design, because it will help you understand the complexity that goes into making these interfaces successful and help you speak to different use-cases for voice and chat technology in an informed way.
Pearl is an engaging writer. Love this book.
I'd also recommend it to anyone working in design, because it will help you understand the complexity that goes into making these interfaces successful and help you speak to different use-cases for voice and chat technology in an informed way.
Pearl is an engaging writer. Love this book.
January 5, 2022
Small disclaimer: I am not a VUI (Voice User Interface) designer and not going to be in the near future, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.
My main problem with the book is that for the most part it's just too obvious. Many recommendations can be replaced by just thinking about how would human respond in such a case and integrating that into UI.
Also there are not many technical details about VUI implementation, the book's main focus is to make the dialogs more human-like. My feeling is that to do it well it's mandatory to put in charge of a VUI design a person that, you know, speaks to other people - and then most of the problems, mentioned in this book wouldn't even arise.
The book is split into 8 chapters.
Chapter 1. Introduction. Mainly it's just a history of VUI tools ending with chatbots/Alexa and some thoughts about when it can be applied (besides just spamming poor people with phone calls from marketing bots - a thing so annoying, that it ended up in a Last Week Tonight episode — but I digress).
Chapter 2. Basic VUI Design Principles. The most useful chapter in the book. Sets up the terminology and categorizes VUI types, and types of voice confirmations.
Chapter 3. Personas, Avatars, Actors, and Video Games. Basically you need to also have a virtual or physical representation of a thing that listens to the customer. It could be a person, animal, humanoid-robot or just a simplistic blinking light like Alexa.
Chapter 4. Speech Recognition Technology. A bit of a useful chapter mentioning N-best lists, spelling, handling noise, no speech and too much speech. Still, nothing too important.
Chapter 5. Advanced Voice User Interface Design. Nice examples of the common mis-recognitions.
Chapter 6. User Testing for VUI. A good point of trying to not reveal to the users who test the system, that the system is actually a bot that uses speech recognition (not always possible). Or do it vice-versa with with "Wizard of Oz" testing.
Chapter 7. Your User Interface Is Finished! Now What? Some thoughts about other types of testing and collecting data from real users and using it to improve it. Kinda obvious.
Chapter 8. Voice-Enabled Devices and Cars. Obvious things about designing VUI for cars - handling the noise, handling common scenarios (traffic en route to home etc.)
My main problem with the book is that for the most part it's just too obvious. Many recommendations can be replaced by just thinking about how would human respond in such a case and integrating that into UI.
Also there are not many technical details about VUI implementation, the book's main focus is to make the dialogs more human-like. My feeling is that to do it well it's mandatory to put in charge of a VUI design a person that, you know, speaks to other people - and then most of the problems, mentioned in this book wouldn't even arise.
The book is split into 8 chapters.
Chapter 1. Introduction. Mainly it's just a history of VUI tools ending with chatbots/Alexa and some thoughts about when it can be applied (besides just spamming poor people with phone calls from marketing bots - a thing so annoying, that it ended up in a Last Week Tonight episode — but I digress).
Chapter 2. Basic VUI Design Principles. The most useful chapter in the book. Sets up the terminology and categorizes VUI types, and types of voice confirmations.
Chapter 3. Personas, Avatars, Actors, and Video Games. Basically you need to also have a virtual or physical representation of a thing that listens to the customer. It could be a person, animal, humanoid-robot or just a simplistic blinking light like Alexa.
Chapter 4. Speech Recognition Technology. A bit of a useful chapter mentioning N-best lists, spelling, handling noise, no speech and too much speech. Still, nothing too important.
Chapter 5. Advanced Voice User Interface Design. Nice examples of the common mis-recognitions.
Chapter 6. User Testing for VUI. A good point of trying to not reveal to the users who test the system, that the system is actually a bot that uses speech recognition (not always possible). Or do it vice-versa with with "Wizard of Oz" testing.
Chapter 7. Your User Interface Is Finished! Now What? Some thoughts about other types of testing and collecting data from real users and using it to improve it. Kinda obvious.
Chapter 8. Voice-Enabled Devices and Cars. Obvious things about designing VUI for cars - handling the noise, handling common scenarios (traffic en route to home etc.)
June 29, 2023
Great Book, Interesting Book
I found this a really interesting book.
In this day of constant new releases of AI models and chatbots, this book is a great guide on how to design these type of interfaces - with specific focus on voice.
Obviously this is a powerful book, and subject, and I was able to gain a lot of knowledge from it - to utilize in this new realm of language modeling.
Highly recommended if you are into the new type of UI (user interface) - that focuses less on visuals, and more on user interactions. Maybe the new UI is going to be (user interactions) instead, as we move away from visuals and more into cognitive futures (although Apple doesn't think so).
Either way, check this book out!
4.5/5
I found this a really interesting book.
In this day of constant new releases of AI models and chatbots, this book is a great guide on how to design these type of interfaces - with specific focus on voice.
Obviously this is a powerful book, and subject, and I was able to gain a lot of knowledge from it - to utilize in this new realm of language modeling.
Highly recommended if you are into the new type of UI (user interface) - that focuses less on visuals, and more on user interactions. Maybe the new UI is going to be (user interactions) instead, as we move away from visuals and more into cognitive futures (although Apple doesn't think so).
Either way, check this book out!
4.5/5
May 3, 2022
"Users know they're speaking to a machine, but humans appreciate these conversational basics nonetheless."
This is a nice book to understand better emerging and innovative speaking technologies. Reading it, you can learn about voice user interfaces (VUI), chatbots, and all the different fields behind this fascinating industry. I feel like a deeper approach showing how to really design a VUI is needed, and a step-by-step process to create a design, but besides that, this book is able to provide you with best practices of text design.
November 11, 2017
Ottimo libro introduttivo sulla tematica. Non spiega come creare un bot o in generale un'interfaccia vocale, ma spiega come dovrebbe essere offrendo linee guida, spunti e riflessioni basate anche su errori.
Non servono particolari prerequisiti per leggerlo; il libro è molto chiaro e spiega bene. Anzi, è molto approfondito ed analizza in dettaglio molti aspetti, evidenziando anche dove la tecnologia è all'inizio rispetto a campi in cui è più avanzata.
Non servono particolari prerequisiti per leggerlo; il libro è molto chiaro e spiega bene. Anzi, è molto approfondito ed analizza in dettaglio molti aspetti, evidenziando anche dove la tecnologia è all'inizio rispetto a campi in cui è più avanzata.
September 12, 2017
Very good to start into VUI world
It's a good book to start for anyone just starting working on designing conversational interfaces. The book is not a guide, but rather a collection of insights and real world cases from different VUIs out there.
It's a good book to start for anyone just starting working on designing conversational interfaces. The book is not a guide, but rather a collection of insights and real world cases from different VUIs out there.
January 5, 2019
A good overview for someone completely new to VUI. This can help you learn key terminology, identify companies and individuals involved in the field, and give you an idea of the types of work you can do in VUI.
October 8, 2017
All over the place
There is a lot of information but mostly from the IVR world. Personally, I hate IVR's therefore did not find this any more useful than the VUI guides on Alexa
There is a lot of information but mostly from the IVR world. Personally, I hate IVR's therefore did not find this any more useful than the VUI guides on Alexa
April 8, 2018
Good but very basic introduction to VUI.
June 20, 2018
Great overview for those just wanting to dive in and learn!
March 12, 2019
Read as part of my dissertation and was helpful for tips on designing an Alexa skill and getting some more detailed background about VUIs.
June 29, 2020
Seminal text for voice design
September 18, 2021
Could do more in-depth coming from a programming perspective
November 18, 2021
Good overview, but lacking practical examples to learn from. Walk us through a user script or show a final deliverable of what a developer needs, etc.
July 18, 2022
Una sencilla pero amplia introducción al mundo del VUI.
December 21, 2024
Took me quite a while to finish 😄 By now, with AI advancements, some parts of the book are no longer up to date, yet it still provides helpful insights.
January 21, 2017
Solid overview of an increasingly important part of UX design.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews