11 Push interactions
This chapter covers
- Engaging users proactively
- Routine suggestions
- Storing information about user preferences
- Daily updates
- Notifications
- Empowering implicit invocation
We’ve looked at interaction models where the user kicks off the discussion and Assistant reacts accordingly. The assumption is always that the user is the one who should start a conversation. The slowness of the major voice platforms to add push interactions is understandable. People have needed to trust that voice first wouldn’t go the way of mobile, with an overwhelming proliferation of notifications calling out for the user’s attention. Indeed, it’s easy to see the link between the growth of voice and the population’s growing enmity toward attention-seeking mobile phones.
Let’s return to our central idea that voice needs to help users efficiently accomplish a given action. A requirement that users must always be the party that initiates the interaction contravenes this goal. There are certainly situations where the computer can more efficiently achieve something without waiting for the user. A notification that a favorite team’s game is about to start can help a baseball fan watch a game without having to ask repeatedly. Updating of the number of training miles for the day can help a backpacker train for an upcoming hike. In each of these situations, the computer is taking the mental load from the user, freeing that person from having to remember an interaction with the device.