Designing Effective Speech Interfaces

Responsiveness

The final law, Responsiveness, is #20 and it says: The interface will inform users about the results of their actions and the interface's status.

Human Factors

Users need feedback on their actions and feedback on the system's actions. Feedback is especially important when users expect that they are having a “conversation” with the machine.

Technology Considerations and Implications

To be responsive, you need to assist users who make errors and provide feedback on what the system is doing.

Assisting with Errors

Most errors are self-detected and self-corrected.

Most user errors are self-detected and self-corrected. This means that most users recognize their error before the system discovers it. Although editing routines are important in the programming code, it is even more important to permit the user to detect and correct an error before the system intervenes.

For example, a user says, “Two,” and realizes right away that they should have said “Three.” The user has “self-detected” an error. The critical question is, can the user easily self-correct the error? Do they know how? Is it easy to fix? If the system has “barge-in” capability, then the user can interrupt the system and change course. Many users, however, will be unaware of the barge-in features, and therefore will not use them. Responsiveness means letting the user know what the error is and what they can do to correct it.

Providing Feedback

The system does not need to let the user know what it is doing ...