Fundamentals of Voice User Interface (VUI) Design

Creating an optimal speech application involves understanding and employing complex concepts in dialog design. Every member of the team benefits from a basic understanding of these concepts. Participants learn the importance of gathering requirements that identify all information necessary to create a successful caller-centered design. They learn how to work with the design specification document and understand how it guides and anticipates implementation, testing, and tuning. This course includes hands-on activities and real-world case studies on integrating requirements into a VUI specification, creating call flows, applying VUI design principles in prompt messages, and helping define grammar requirements. Participants gain insight into how to promote clearly stated objectives, preclude incomplete or changing requirements, and ensure caller-centered design.

• List important elements of user interface design
• Distinguish speech interface from touch-tone interface
• Identify the roles of a UI designer throughout a project lifecycle
• Research application requirements to determine design parameters
• Design callflow diagrams
• Illustrate an application personality by producing sample calls
• Specify initial and secondary prompts to define a single context and handle predictable events
• Recognize issues relevant to selecting and coaching voice talent
• Describe how to test the effectiveness of an interface
• Discuss how to deploy an application and use Tuning Tools

• User interface designers beginning in speech
• Application tuners
• Grammar developers
• QA testers
• Operations personnel

1. Introduction
2. Design Overview
3. Components of a Speech User
4. Interface
5. Interface Design Process
6. Specification 1 Requirements Specification
7. Specification 2 User Interface Specification
8. Specification 3 Initial and Secondary Prompts
9. Development 1 Production of Prompts
10. Development 2 Usability Testing
11. Deployment
12. Course Wrap-Up

• Introduction to Speech Recognition