Voice User Interface Design

Preface

In the past decade, there has been an explosion in the creation and commercial deployment of voice user interfaces, especially for use over the telephone. Voice user interfaces (VUIs) use speech technology to provide callers with access to information, allow them to perform transactions, and support communications.

This proliferation is driven by a number of factors: customer dissatisfaction with touchtone interactions, a growing desire for mobile access, the need for enterprises to more effectively and inexpensively meet their customers' needs, and the development of speech technology that is finally robust and reliable enough to deliver effective and reliable interaction in well-defined domains.

At the beginning of this decade of growth ...