How do you design a voice user interface for your UI?

1 Define the user and the goal

The first step is to define who your target user is and what they want to achieve with your VUI. You need to understand their needs, preferences, expectations, and limitations. You can use user research methods, such as interviews, surveys, personas, and scenarios, to gather this information. Then, you can use it to create a clear and concise user goal statement that describes the main task or problem that your VUI will solve.

2 Design the conversation

The second step is to design the conversation between your VUI and your user. You need to think about how your VUI will initiate, maintain, and end the conversation. You also need to consider the tone, style, and personality of your VUI, and how it will match your brand and your user. You can use tools, such as scripts, storyboards, and flowcharts, to map out the possible paths and branches of the conversation. You should also include prompts, confirmations, acknowledgments, and instructions to guide your user.

3 Choose the voice

The third step is to choose the voice of your VUI. You need to decide whether you will use a synthetic or a natural voice, and whether it will be male, female, or neutral. You also need to consider the accent, pitch, speed, and emotion of the voice, and how they will affect the user's perception and trust. You can use text-to-speech services, such as Google Cloud Text-to-Speech or Amazon Polly, to generate and test different voice options.

4 Implement the speech recognition

The fourth step is to implement the speech recognition of your VUI. You need to use a speech recognition engine, such as Google Cloud Speech-to-Text or Amazon Transcribe, to convert the user's speech into text. You also need to use a natural language understanding (NLU) component, such as Google Dialogflow or Amazon Lex, to analyze the text and extract the user's intent and parameters. You can use intents and entities to define the different types of requests and information that your VUI can handle.

5 Provide the feedback

The fifth step is to provide the feedback of your VUI. You need to use a text-to-speech engine, such as Google Cloud Text-to-Speech or Amazon Polly, to convert the text into speech. You also need to use a natural language generation (NLG) component, such as Google Dialogflow or Amazon Lex, to generate the appropriate response based on the user's intent and parameters. You can use responses and actions to define the different types of answers and actions that your VUI can perform.

6 Handle the errors

The sixth step is to handle the errors of your VUI. You need to anticipate and prevent possible errors, such as misrecognition, misunderstanding, or miscommunication, that may occur during the conversation. You also need to detect and recover from errors, such as interruptions, repetitions, or corrections, that may happen due to the user's behavior or the environment. You can use strategies, such as confirmation, clarification, suggestion, or apology, to resolve the errors and maintain the user's satisfaction and trust.