Ivr Usability Engineering Using Guidelines And Analyses Of End-to-End Calls

While speech offers unique advantages and opportunities as an interface modality, the known limitations of speech recognition technology and cognitive limitations of spoken interaction amplify the importance of usability in the development of speech applications. The competitive business environment, on the other hand, requires sound business justification for any investment in speech technology and proof of its usability and effectiveness. This chapter presents design principles and usability engineering methods that empower practitioners to optimize both usability and ROI of telephone speech applications, frequently also referred to as telephone Voice User Interface (VUI) or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. The first section discusses limitations of speech user interfaces and their repercussions on design. From a survey of research and industry know-how a short list of guidelines for IVR design is derived. Examples illustrate how to apply these guidelines during the design phase of a telephone speech application. The second section presents a data-driven methodology for optimizing usability and effectiveness of IVRs. The methodology is grounded in the analysis of live, end-to-end calls - the ultimate field data for telephone speech applications. We will describe how to capture end-to-end call data from deployed systems and how to mine this data to measure usability and identify problems. Leveraging end-to-end call data empowers practitioners to build solid business cases, optimize ROI, and justify the cost of IVR usability engineering. Case studies from the consulting practice at BBN Technologies illustrate how these methods were applied in some of the largest US deployments of automated telephone applications.

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