Designing Dialogue: An intro to voice design

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 short introduction, you’ll learn about the design process and learn some fundamental principles. You'll see just how different the design methods are, and how to conduct 'Wizard of Oz' testing.

Transcript

1. DESIGNING DIALOGUE: 

   AN INTRO TO VUI DESIGN
   @bensauer
   UX IN THE CITY, MANCHESTER, MAY 2017
   

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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
   

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4. Curious Rituals
   produced by The Near Future Laboratory
   

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6. Curious Rituals
   produced by The Near Future Laboratory
   

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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…
   

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8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cryptik/23815673664 @bensauer
   ?
   

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9. Our true calling is to make 

   the system fail gracefully.
   

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10. REALITIES OF VUI
    

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11. VUI is deceptively limited.
    @bensauer
    

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12. @bensauer
    VUI USE MAY BE U-SHAPED
    @bensauer
    AWESOME
    SUCKS
    10 100 ∞
    USE CASES
    

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14. Platforms limit possibilities.
    @bensauer
    

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15. Transactions over conversations.
    @bensauer
    

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16. The context of use 

    is everything.
    

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17. WHAT IS
    CONVERSATION?
    

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18. Context
    Language
    Exchange
    Agreement
    Transaction / Action
    

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19. from Paul Pangaro's ‘Conversation is more than interface’ https://vimeo.com/207866146
    

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20. WHAT’S DIFFERENT
    ABOUT VUI DESIGN?
    

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21. Recall over recognition.
    

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22. The first expression 

    is the goal.
    

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23. GUI VUI
    THE USER JOURNEY
    

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24. The medium you design in

    is not the medium you experience.
    @bensauer
    

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25. Shorter ‘Time to Test’.
    

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26. A.I. is getting better at
    understanding so that 

    we don’t have to.
    

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27. The heart of VUI is great writing.
    @bensauer
    

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28. WHAT’S THE PROCESS?
    

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29. @bensauer
    0. DOES THE CONTEXT WORK?
    • Hands
    • Eyes
    • Voice
    • Ears
    

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30. @bensauer
    0. CONTEXT
    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?
    

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31. @bensauer
    0. CONTEXT 1. PERSONA
    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?
    

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33. UTTERANCE
    • What the user says when it’s their turn; e.g. a whole sentence or a
    response.
    • These are what you collect in research and testing.
    

    UTTERANCE
    “Order me some glow-in-the-dark toilet paper.”
    

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34. 

    

    “Order me a Nintendo Switch.”
    INTENT
    • An abstraction of what the user intended, based on their words.
    • These map to your system’s API hooks.
    • Systems are getting better at spotting these so we don’t have to.
    INTENT: Buy Product
    

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35. 

    

    “Set a timer for 30 seconds.”
    VARIABLE
    • Information that accompanies the intent.
    • Often the stuff your VUI is trying to get from the user to complete their
    request.
    VARIABLE: Timer Duration
    

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36. @bensauer
    0. CONTEXT 2. SAMPLE DIALOGUE
    1. PERSONA
    3. WIZARD OF OZ TESTING
    • Can they use it?
    • Do they understand it?
    • What synonyms do they use?
    • Do they hesitate?
    

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37. WIZARD OF OZ DEMO
    

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38. 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
    

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39. @bensauer
    0. CONTEXT 2. SAMPLE DIALOGUE 3. TESTING
    1. PERSONA
    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?
    

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40. Intent
    BOOKING A CAB: FLOW
    Location
    Check
    Recover
    Confirm
    booking
    Time Check
    Time Check
    Confirm
    Location
    

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41. @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?
    

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42. VUI PRINCIPLES
    

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43. Always be capturing.
    

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44. CAPTURING WHAT
    PEOPLE SAY
    

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49. Find out the things they need 

    in the things they say.
    WHAT 

    PEOPLE

    SAY
    WHAT

    THEY 

    NEED
    

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50. Postel’s Law
    Be conservative in what you send,
    be liberal in what you accept.
    @bensauer
    

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51. I’d really like to visit Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-
    gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
    @bensauer
    USER:
    In North Wales?
    ALEXA:
    

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52. Design for mundane realities.
    

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53. Pair Bluetooth!!!!
    @bensauer
    HEAVILY ACCENTED USER FOR THE 3RD TIME:
    I’m really sorry, I still don’t understand.
    Can I suggest using the Alexa app instead?
    ALEXA:
    

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54. Considerate confirmation.
    

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55. Did you mean Odeon, Brighton?
    @bensauer
    SYSTEM HAS 50% CONFIDENCE:
    When would you like to go to 

    the Odeon Brighton?
    IMPLICIT:
    
    NONE:
    

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56. Human, but not *too* human.
    

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58. 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
    

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59. 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
    

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60. I’m @bensauer.

    (as in ‘Jack Bauer’.)
    “AUDIENCE. thanks for listening.”
    Read more of my nonsense at: http://slapdashery.org
    

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