Speech Technology - October 2008 - (Page 7)

MELANIE POLKOSKY INTERACT Contradicting a Legend The less memorable a VUI, the better ne of the most well-known names in usability, likely to tell everyone we know, thereby paying back bad Jakob Nielsen, stated that being able to remember a service or rewarding good service with word of mouth. The user interface was a component of usability. Although this Internet has given word of mouth a vastly wider audience may be true for graphic user experiences, I’d argue that and made it a more substantial outcome. being able to remember a voice user interface is exactly So what does this have to do with us as designers? If you what you don’t want to accomplish in the world of speech consider that most VUIs typically perform mundane servand interactive voice response design. ice interactions, research suggests that remembering them Why would I contradict such a towering figure in our is something to be avoided, not achieved. In fact, my own field? It’s because of the inherent differences in how we research has shown that the best way to predict customer process visual information and social interactions. satisfaction with a VUI is to do what he wants, as quickly A stream of research in conversation shows that people as possible, and in a way that is in line with his expectaare notoriously poor at correctly remembering their every- tions. This means the voice needs to be professional, the day communication. We’re subject to a variety of cognitive service helpful, and the language polite and efficient. biases that cause us to incorrectly remember things that Many VUI designers know their job is to design a user-oriweren’t said, omit things that were said, and hear only ented interaction. They’ve come to understand that people what we want to hear. We also tend to significantly over- aren’t interested in getting to know a VUI, listening to a comestimate how understandable we make our mercial, or hearing a bunch of other stuff; they own points. Some people, such as introverts just want their bank balance or to pay their Most of our and English-as-a-second-language speakers, bill—in, out, and done, thank you very much. more mundane may use so many of their cognitive resources Research also shines a harsh spotlight on interactions fall to make conversation, such as taking turns those excruciating, circular conversations from memory the moment and planning what to say next, that they we’ve all had in which someone wants to they end. have very little left over to remember other change a word, or two, or three. If users details about the interaction and partner. don’t remember the specific words, only the Generally speaking, our cognitive resources are limited gist of the conversation, why would we even get embroiled to a brief summary of what we actually experience, col- in this type of discussion? On the flip side, why would a ored by our own expectations and emotional states at the designer adamantly insist on a single, specific wording and time. And this is if we are at all motivated to recall a con- get into a power struggle over it? versation or we aren’t distracted by another task. Our In both cases, the person doing the asserting is forgetting everyday interactions are governed by a goal to achieve that a specific word (or phrase) is only one single instrusomething—often information transfer—not by a social ment in an orchestra of finely tuned and collaborating goal to get to know our conversational partner at a design elements. In good VUI design, we need to focus on deeper level. Thus, most of our more mundane interac- the big picture: the overall tone and attitude of the VUI’s tions fall from memory the moment they end, assuming language and whether it does what users really want it to nothing atypical occurred and the partner didn’t do any- do. Many specific words could work equally well within a thing out of character. given tone, and a not-the-greatest script can often be tweaked with an excellent voice talent. Short Memory Spans So with respect to Mr. Nielsen, memorability usually Backing up the conversation literature, service delivery isn’t a virtue in VUI design. If you’re overfocused on writresearch also indicates that we remember interactions ing a memorable script, you might just be missing the forwith service providers only if they do something unusual, est for the veins on the leaves of the trees. In the end, if like provide us with unbelievably bad (or good) service. We customers are remembering your IVR, it might just be for go into an interaction with a sort of cognitive checklist of the wrong reasons. how the interaction should progress and how the provider Melanie Polkosky, Ph.D, is a social-cognitive psychologist and speech-language should act. If everything is in line with our checklist, we’re pathologist who has researched and designed speech, graphic, and multimedia satisfied and go on our merry way. But if something atypuser experiences for more than 12 years. She is currently a human factors psychologist and senior consultant at IBM. She can be reached at polkosky@comcast.net. ical happens, we remember the interaction and are more O www.speechtechmag.com OCTOBER 2008 Speech Technology | 7 http://www.speechtechmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Speech Technology - October 2008

Speech Technology - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Letter Industry View Inside Outsourcing Interact Keynoter Highlights the Shrinking Technological World Former Hacker Tackles IVR and Biometrics ‘Press 1’ for Caller Thoughts Soundbytes Voice Vote A New Dragon Emerges Overheard/Underheard An Emotional Mess Emotional Intelligence The Case for Call Recording Unified in Care and Communications An Education in E-Learning Guest Column Standards Speech Solutions Voice Value Forward Thinking

Speech Technology - October 2008

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