Voice User Interface Design: New Solutions to Old Problems
Why voice? Why now? We examine why voice technology is leaping from a decades-long slumber to mainstream success.
In the past few years, voice user experiences have reached critical mass. Cortana. Alexa. Google.
Like many technologies that seem fresh off the presses (virtual reality, anyone?), voice user interfaces have been in the public consciousness for decades and in research circles even longer. Bell Laboratories debuted their “Audrey” system (the first voice controlled UI) in 1952, predating even Star Trek’s aspirational voice controlled computer!
But speech scientists have long known the magic of transforming analog signals into digital meaning would take a scope of processing power that far outstripped its early humble roots. It is only recently, in the era of ubiquitous cloud computing, that consumers have access to enough processing power that their own voices can be heard and interpreted in real time.
A New Frontier
As user experience designers, we were most likely trained in crafting experiences designed for graphical output and physical input. I know that voice interfaces were far from the imagination of the academics of my time — during my senior…
