What is a Voice Design Experience?

Voice Design Experiences are interactions between a product and the user through voice. The user wakes the product through a command, such as “Alexa” or “Siri”. The device will light up or enter the voice activation mode by providing an image and the user will continue with their command or question (2017). Voice interaction is communication through voice between a host and a device. For example, the user can ask the device, “Alexa, what is the weather outside?” The device, or Alexa, will respond, “The weather outside is 68° fahrenheit”. The user uses a word to awaken the device to launch a specific skill. 

How are they Different from Chat Bot Experiences?

Voice Design Experiences are different from text-based/chatbot experiences, because users use their voice to communicate to the device, while text-based and chatbot experiences are used through typing. Interactions between a chatbot and voice design experiences are different, because chatbots are interacted through phone screens and web screens. Interacting with a device through voice in their natural language. Users who use chatbots have to interact with the chatbot using their hands, while voice activated chatbots are hands-free (2018). However, both the chatbot and voice design experience must be done through the same type of language by speaking more swiftly.

What did I Create?

The VUI I have created is an experience between Alexa and the user ordering pizza through Pizza Hut. The user commands Alexa to order dinner. Alexa asks the user what they would like to order and the user says Pizza Hut. Alexa takes the user on a journey through each other’s voice ordering and creating a pizza. Alexa first asks the user what they would like to order from Pizza Hut’s menu (ie., pizza, salads, desserts). The user selects pizza, and then Alexa takes them through the steps of creating a pizza from scratch after the user chooses to create their own pizza.

How Did I Create it?

I created my VUI by writing a script between Alexa and the user. I wrote the script like a conversation between the customer and the restaurant employee. I want to guide the user as if they were ordering the pizza online, but instead through voice chat. The design of the speech patterns guide the user through steps of ordering and creating their own pizza. I refined the VUI by simplifying the conversation so as to not make it too long, because I wanted to make it as if it was the user’s first time speaking to Alexa. I was sure I was finished with the conversation when I played back the conversation out loud by pretending to be both the user and Alexa.

What Went Wrong and What Worked

When creating the VUI, I found the most challenging thing to be creating the steps that Alexa guides the user through. In order to be as precise as possible I studied Pizza Hut’s website and used their steps of ordering and creating a pizza in my VUI. I had to research Pizza Hut’s menu to form my own menu. I also found the conversation to be a challenge, because I wanted to simplify the conversation to make it easier for the user to understand. I am most proud of how the VUI turned out, because I think I took the information and turned it into a well-designed VUI. I think the finished product works well and I would want to use the same sort of VUI in the real world. 

Alexa Developers. (2017, December 15). Voice Design 101 An Introduction [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUooJoTKcA

(2018, October 18). Voice Enabled Chatbots Vs. Messenger Bots: Everything You Need to Know. Botanalytics. Retrieved from, https://medium.com/@botanalytics/voice-enabled-chatbots-vs-messenger-bots-everything-you-need-to-know-29f2c7a982c1