VUI Visions: Expert Views on Effective Voice User Interface Design

by William Meisel

Today’s automated speech systems—driven by advances in speech recognition technology—are increasingly pervasive, particularly over the telephone, in automobiles, on small devices, and in specialized applications on PCs. The success of such systems depends upon the skills of the developer to create an effective Voice User Interface (VUI). Experienced VUI designers are developing an understanding of how people react to talking with computers and discovering the differences between person-to-person dialog and person-to-computer dialog. This book offers the insights of many experts who have created practical interactive voice systems—systems that, for example, help customers calling a company’s contact center, busy drivers trying to find their way, or doctors creating medical reports. These VUI-design pioneers provide practical guidance for those who follow in their footsteps. For readers interested in insights on human interaction with machines, many articles in VUI Visions illustrate how people react when computers have human-like attributes. For managers and product planners, many articles may suggest products and services that are uniquely enabled by a VUI.

179 pages, Paperback

Published February 3, 2006

About the author

William (“Bill”) Meisel’s experience combines a strong academic, technical, and business background. With a B.S. degree in Engineering from Caltech and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, he began his career as a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at USC. He has published over 70 papers and several books, including a technical book, Computer-Oriented Approaches to Pattern Recognition. He was the editor and a contributor to New Components and Subsystems for Digital Design; VUI Visions: Expert Views on Effective Voice User Interface Design; Speech in the User Interface: Lessons from Experience; The Software Society: Cultural and Economic Impact (2013), and Technically Dead (2015).

After working in university research, Dr. Meisel launched and managed the Computer Science Division of an aerospace company, applying pattern recognition technology to a number of application areas, including target detection and intelligence data analysis. He then founded a venture-capital-backed speech recognition company and ran it for ten years. He has been issued six patents in various areas of technology. Currently, as an industry analyst, he publishes a paid-subscription, no-ads monthly industry newsletter, Speech Strategy News, on commercial developments in speech technology and natural language interpretation. He also authors a blog, Meisel-on-Mobile. As Executive Director of the Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS), a non-profit industry organization, he creates the program for AVIOS’s annual Mobile Voice Conference.