An introduction to voice design - UX Scotland

A new frontier is opening up in UX design: voice! Products like Amazon's Echo and Google Home offer designers a new place to play, and new skills to learn. In this 90-minute workshop, learn about the design process, get busy crafting dialogue, and learn some fundamental principles. You'll see just how different the design methods are, and what the 'Wizard of Oz' testing method is. Come find your inner bot!

Transcript

1. DESIGNING DIALOGUE: 
 AN INTRO 
 TO VUI DESIGN @bensauer UX SCOTLAND, JUNE 2017
2. ARISTOTLE There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This condition would be that each instrument could do its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation. @bensauer
4. Curious Rituals produced by The Near Future Laboratory
6. Curious Rituals produced by The Near Future Laboratory
7. • Limited shared vocabulary • Poor skills / co-ordination • No capacity to learn • Never sure job will get done • Turns you into the a$$h0le Using VUI is a bit like 
 dealing with Manuel…
8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cryptik/23815673664 @bensauer ?
9. Our true calling is to make 
 the system fail gracefully.
10. REALITIES OF VUI
11. VUI is deceptively limited. @bensauer
12. @bensauer VUI USE MAY BE U-SHAPED @bensauer AWESOME SUCKS 10 100 ∞ USE CASES
14. Platforms limit possibilities. @bensauer
15. Transactions over conversations. @bensauer
16. The context of use 
 is everything.
17. WHAT IS CONVERSATION?
18. Context Language Exchange Agreement Transaction / Action
19. from Paul Pangaro's ‘Conversation is more than interface’ https://vimeo.com/207866146
20. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT VUI DESIGN?
21. Recall over recognition.
22. The first interaction 
 expresses the goal.
23. GUI VUI THE USER JOURNEY
24. The medium you design in
 is not the medium you experience. @bensauer
25. Shorter ‘Time to Test’.
26. A.I. is getting better at understanding what people mean.
27. The heart of VUI 
 is great writing. @bensauer
28. WHAT’S THE PROCESS?
29. @bensauer 0. DOES THE CONTEXT WORK? • Hands • Eyes • Voice • Ears
30. ACTIVITY Create a voice interface for a person attending the first day of UX Scotland. 
 See page 2 of the handout.
31. ACTIVITY On page 3, map what they might do that day, and where a voice interface could help.
32. ACTIVITY Choose one question or task as 
 your use case.
33. @bensauer 1. DEFINE YOUR PERSONA • Who is your system? • What’s the personality, the brand? • What are their characteristics or attributes? • What’s the tone of voice? • What would it say, or not say? 0. CONTEXT
34. ACTIVITY Complete the personality spectrum on page 4.
35. @bensauer 2. WRITE SAMPLE DIALOGUE • What’s the scenario? • How would you improvise it? • What’s the expected exchange? • How does the system respond? • What’s too much, or too little? 0. CONTEXT 1. PERSONA
37. ACTIVITY In the first column on page 5, write down some ideas about what your user might say first.
38. “When is the next train to London Victoria?” Too concise: 
 20 minutes.
39. “When is the next train to London Victoria?” Too detailed: 
 The next train from Brighton station to London Victoria station leaves in twenty minutes, at twenty past ten. It has no first class service and divides at Haywards Heath. It arrives at London Victoria at ten past eleven.
40. “When is the next train to London Victoria?” Just right: 
 The next train from Brighton to London Victoria leaves in 20 minutes.
41. ACTIVITY In the second column, write down some ideas about how the system should respond, and how the dialogue might continue.
42. @bensauer 3. WIZARD OF OZ TESTING • Can they use it? • Do they understand it? • What synonyms do they use? • Do they hesitate? 0. CONTEXT 2. SAMPLE DIALOGUE 1. PERSONA
43. WIZARD OF OZ DEMO
44. TEST YOUR VUI IDEA IN 1HR WIZARD OF OZ TESTING • Write sample dialogue • Load it into a plain text file • Offer some participants pizza • Run a test using ‘Say Wizard’ 
 on a mac https://chatbotsmagazine.com/stfu-test-your-voice-app-idea-in-less-than-an- hour-2638cdff2503
45. ACTIVITY On page 7 of the handout, write a brief for your test participant.
46. ACTIVITY Find a partner. 
 Read them your brief out loud, and find out what they’d say to your voice interface.
47. ACTIVITY Look at your answers on page 5. Did what your partner say match you wrote?
48. @bensauer 4. DIALOGUE FLOW • What are the user journeys? • What are the entry points? • What are the system states? • What happens if the input is unexpected? 0. CONTEXT 2. SAMPLE DIALOGUE 3. TESTING 1. PERSONA
49. Intent BOOKING A CAB: FLOW Location Check Recover Confirm booking Time Check Recover Confirm Location
50. @bensauer 0. CONTEXT 2. SAMPLE DIALOGUE 3. TESTING 4. FLOW 1. PERSONA 5. BUILD AND TEST • What is the complete dialogue? • How can you avoid dialogue repetition? • What’s the error rate at scale?
51. UTTERANCE “Order me some glow-in-the-dark toilet paper.”
52. 
 
 “Order me a Nintendo Switch.” INTENT Buy Product
53. 
 
 “Set a timer for 30 seconds.” VARIABLE Timer Duration
54. VUI PRINCIPLES
55. Always be capturing.
56. CAPTURING WHAT PEOPLE SAY
61. Find out the things they need 
 in the things they say. WHAT 
 PEOPLE
 SAY WHAT
 THEY 
 NEED
62. Postel’s Law Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept. @bensauer
63. I’d really like to visit Llanfair- pwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn drobwllllantysiliogogogoch. @bensauer USER: In North Wales? ALEXA:
64. Design for mundane realities.
66. Pair Bluetooth!!!! @bensauer GLASWEGIAN USER FOR THE 3RD TIME: I’m really sorry, I still don’t understand. Can I suggest using the Alexa app instead? ALEXA:
67. Considerate confirmation.
68. Did you mean Odeon, Brighton? @bensauer SYSTEM HAS 50% CONFIDENCE: When would you like to go to 
 the Odeon Brighton? IMPLICIT: <Lights switch on> NONE:
69. Human, but not *too* human.
71. RESOURCES • Cathy Pearl’s VUI book • Wizard of Oz Testing:
 https://chatbotsmagazine.com/stfu-test- your-voice-app-idea-in-less-than-an- hour-2638cdff2503 • Say Wizard:
 https://github.com/bensauer/saywizard
72. MARC WEISER “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” @bensauer
73. I’m @bensauer.
 (as in ‘Jack Bauer’.) “AUDIENCE. thanks for listening.”