Teaching Robots to Speak Human

Danger Will Robinson! Voice UI’s are everywhere, but the experience of using them ranges from mediocre to downright scary. Learn the history of VUI plus actionable advice to improve the user experience, enjoyment, and engagement of VUI based apps.

At Devfest Montreal 2018

Transcript

1. Teaching Robots to Speak Human What pop culture teaches us about great Voice UIs
2. Hello! I am Bryce Howitson You can find me on Twitter as @howitson 2
6. 6 Danger Will Robinson!
8. We’re all humans, we have conversations 8
9. Welcome to the movies! Our expectations come from pop culture 1
12. Discovering or Subverting Humanity Are the machines really our friends? 2
14. “ 14
15. “ 15
16. Don’t Ramble, Do Connect Techniques that humanize VUI 3
19. 19 Emotion creates empathy
20. 20 Humor & wit are likeable
21. 21 Faces are comfortable
23. “As the appearance of a robot is made more human, observers' emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. 23 Uncanny Valley - Masahiro Mori
25. Environmentally friendly Understand available context to improve usefulness 3
28. 28 There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat.
30. 30 I have a whole bag of “shh!” with your name on it.
31. “ It sounds like you might be in a public place, should I limit private content? 31
33. Search for the Holy Grail How do I know what to do? 4
34. History always repeats 34 CLI Text based Iconography GUI Voice VUI Multimodal? ???
35. Don’t build walls - Acknowledge requests 35
37. Continue the conversation 37
39. Learn the goal 39
40. Guide the user 40
41. 41 When would you like to travel? Vague and open ended What date would you like to leave? You’re going to get what you expect
42. Ask follow-up questions 42
44. Learn preferences then make recommendations 44
45. 45 Things that float in water: Bread Apples Small Rocks A Duck
47. Prototyping Voice UI 5
51. Let’s review how good sounds Humanistic Good VUI replicates the human experience including emotion, humor and brevity. Contextual Understand the environment and what’s happening around a VUI to determine what you allow to be said. Discoverable The best VUIs help users understand what can be done and how to make forward progress. 51 Trusted Humans have gained a fear of “machines” due to Popular and technical culture. The best VUIs generate trust implicitly. Analogue When you’re prototyping, remember that you already know how human interactions work. Don’t make it overly complicated.
52. 52 Thanks! Any questions? You can find me at @howitson & brycehowitson.com Survey: http://brycehowitson.com/vui_talk