3 Designing a voice user interface
This chapter covers
- Understanding the voice user interface
- Seeing how a VUI differs from graphical user interfaces
- Learning how to use Grice’s maxims to shape a VUI
The early use of each new technology tends to mimic older mediums. Early radio programs were like plays you could listen to at home. Early websites tried to take cues from the computer desktop, which itself was based on the physical desktop. This stage is never the pinnacle of the platform. It’s the same with voice first. Early efforts on voice first may take guidance from the web, but learning how voice user interface (VUI) best practices are different will help drive the conversation forward.
A VUI is the combination of the words, the back-and-forth, and the ways of speaking that come together in voice applications to empower a user to efficiently complete a goal. Think of it as the “script” of a human speaking with a computer.