{"id":5054,"date":"2018-01-25T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/uncategorized\/the-voice-design-revolution-and-how-to-join-it-a-discussion-with-cathy-pearl\/"},"modified":"2021-09-06T17:44:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:44:32","slug":"the-voice-design-revolution-and-how-to-join-it-a-discussion-with-cathy-pearl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/the-voice-design-revolution-and-how-to-join-it-a-discussion-with-cathy-pearl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Voice Design Revolution and How to Join It: A Discussion with Cathy Pearl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voice user interfaces will revolutionize the way we interact with technology. But we would say that, wouldn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

As the first provider of a comprehensive specialization course in VUI<\/a>, CareerFoundry is confident that the wave of demand for voice designers<\/a> is on its way. Why? Well, it\u2019s not just because it\u2019s one of the coolest new job titles around.<\/p>\n

The major players in tech\u2014from Amazon to Google\u2014are investing heavily in voice. By September 2017, a mindblowing 5,000 people were working on Amazon Alexa\u2014the name given to both the company\u2019s digital assistant and the wing of the tech behemoth responsible for it\u2014and they were in the process of recruiting a further 1,000 more. As Rob Pulciani, director of Amazon Alexa, said at the launch of the CareerFoundry course: \u201cVoice is a brand new way of interacting with technology, and one that we believe is the future of computing.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why is voice design (we\u2019ll have to get used to this collocation) gaining such traction now? After all, Google first introduced voice search as far back as 2009, with Apple releasing its first incarnation of Siri in 2011. The difference is that the technology has now crossed the threshold at which it\u2019s truly utile to the user. This threshold, estimated to equate to roughly 95% accuracy in comprehension<\/a>, could well mark the inflection point at which we begin to tire of poking and prodding our devices and prefer, instead, to talk to them.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s VUIs are quickly growing smarter, learning the user\u2019s speech patterns over time and even building their own vocabulary. With VUIs fast-evolving, voice is poised to be the next major disruption in computing.<\/strong> (Amazon<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Adoption rates for products like Amazon Alexa and Voice Search indicate that the migration towards this technology is well and truly underway: The number of adults using voice search on a daily basis<\/a> in the U.S. is hovering around 50%, the number of teens using it has already surpassed that mark<\/a>, and ComScore estimates that 50% of all searches will be voice-based by 2020<\/a>. Furthermore, the number of voice assistants installed on smartphones will reach 5 billion by 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amazon Alexa has already sold over 20 million devices\u2014which equates to 75% of the market\u2014and during the Black Friday holiday shopping weekend of 2017, the Amazon Echo Dot was the best-selling product of any manufacturer in any category<\/a> on Amazon. Google Home, Echo\u2019s closest rival, has sold approximately 5 million devices<\/a>, and both Apple and Microsoft are now entering the market with the Homepod and Invoke.<\/p>\n

Given voice\u2019s rapid development, we thought it worthwhile to get in touch with one of the industry\u2019s stars, Cathy Pearl, to discuss how she first got started, how others could now, the current challenges, and what the future holds for the field.<\/p>\n

From an early age, Cathy held a keen interest in communicating with machines\u2014even as a child, she was already programming computers, and her one true desire was for \u201cthe computer to talk back to me.\u201d She went on to complete an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science, followed by a master\u2019s in Computer Science. \\<\/p>\n

Her professional experience stretches across almost two decades: from voice work for Nuance Communications, one of the trailblazers in voice recognition technology, in 1999 to designing voice user interfaces \u00a0for \u00a0everything from banks to fashion brands.<\/p>\n

She now leads the user experience team at Sensely<\/a>, a 30-strong San Francisco startup in the healthcare sector whose virtual avatar, Molly, assists chronically ill patients in managing their conditions.<\/p>\n

The app is primarily voice-controlled, connecting patients to medical devices for measurement and lessening the need for repeated visits to the doctor. She\u2019s also the author of the recently released book Designing Voice User Interfaces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Describing Voice Design for the Uninitiated<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a great Mitchell and Webb dinner party sketch<\/a> in which a brain surgeon encounters first an accountant, then a charity worker, and compliments both on their choice of occupation before following up with the gleeful gibe: \u201cWell, it\u2019s not exactly brain surgery, is it?\u201d Then, in strolls a rocket scientist, who gives him a taste of his own medicine; \u201cBrain surgery? Well, it\u2019s not exactly rocket science, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

I recall this sketch when I ask Cathy how she describes her job to those lucky enough to be by her side at a dinner party. She turns the concept on its head: \u201cWell, imagine you\u2019re speaking to a person at a dinner party who isn\u2019t following basic conversational rules, which would be very frustrating. For example, you ask, \u2018Do you have the time?,\u2019 to which they reply, \u2018yes\u2019\u2014that would be pretty annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n

I cast my mind back to innumerable stilted conversations at the dining table, but none quite that stilted. Cathy continues: \u201cTechnically, they have answered your question\u2014they\u2019ve understood you. But, boy, is it frustrating and totally not what you wanted, so you follow up and ask, \u2018Well, what is it?,\u2019 and they reply, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t understand,\u2019 because they don\u2019t know what \u2018it\u2019 refers to.<\/p>\n

So this is where we\u2019re at with a lot of voice systems currently. Technically, we understood the words coming out of your mouth, but we\u2019re not making use of them in the right way; we\u2019re not doing it in an expected, elegant way. This is the point of VUI design: it\u2019s not just the technology\u2014we also have to think a lot about conversational rules. How do people expect the conversation to go? How will people actually speak to the device? And then we have to make sure all of this is taken into account and make a design that works for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accounting for Cultural Differences in Conversational Rules<\/h3>\n

Anyone who speaks or has learned a second language (or merely travelled by public transport in other countries) will know that there are marked differences in conversational rules from one country to another.<\/p>\n

I ask how voice designers approach this, and as it turns out, one needn\u2019t look to foreign languages to be confronted with such problems:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to think about localization. Even going from American English to British English, we\u2019ve had the feedback that the responses were too enthusiastic, so we had to tone it down. And within the U.S., the pause people take before speaking is shorter for east-coasters than west-coasters, so west-coasters think, \u2018why aren\u2019t they letting me speak?\u2019, and east-coasters think, \u2018why aren\u2019t they speaking?\u2019 That kind of thing is currently difficult for our voice systems to cope with.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Constraints require designers to be creative: \u201cBecause we can\u2019t handle that more subtle turn-taking, we as designers have to make it really clear, in an elegant way, when an input is expected and what type of input is expected. That\u2019s something which is really key right now.\u201d Perhaps somewhat naively, I\u2019d assumed that the grand aim of voice design would be to mimic human-to-human communication as accurately as possible, and I suggest that the instructional approach contravenes this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure where I fall on that. On the one hand, I\u2019m a big fan of human-like conversation because then I don\u2019t have to learn anything. I can just talk like I normally talk and don\u2019t need a user manual or any special commands. On the other hand, I don\u2019t want to say, \u2018Alexa, please tell me the weather in San Francisco today.\u2019 I want to say, \u2018Alexa, weather,\u2019 because it\u2019s just a computer\u2014a shortcut. In the end, it should work in both ways.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These shortcuts constitute one of the first evolutions in how we communicate with our digital assistants, and, in a similar way to the unexpected explosion of emoji in chat messages, perhaps they\u2019re precursors to a lengthy glossary of shorthand commands that will become commonplace. Or, alternatively, as devices become more intelligent, users might develop their own, individual, stylized shorthand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlexa, tell me it\u2019s going to be sunny today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, Michael, you\u2019re going to have to take your coat again.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I wonder if this kind of communication could have repercussions on the way humans communicate with one another. Cathy confirms there\u2019s been some commotion in the media about this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s been a bit of a scare about that: \u2018Oh, my kid orders around Amazon and I\u2019m afraid it\u2019s going to teach my kid to be rude\u2019\u2014I don\u2019t really worry about that. Kids can easily distinguish between talking to a device and a human. But I did see a more recent article that said it wasn\u2019t so much about the person learning to speak rudely, but rather the way they come across to the rest of the world. Maybe, if I hear you being rude to your devices, I\u2019ll think that\u2019s not a good way to be.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or, maybe, we simply won\u2019t hear people talking to their devices at all\u2014unless we\u2019re in their home with them, that is.<\/p>\n

A number of studies have demonstrated users\u2019 aversion to speaking to their phone in public. While over 50% of people surveyed would use their voice assistant when at home or in the car, fewer than 25% would use it in a public place, whether that be on public transportation, at a party, or at the gym. 40% also reported being annoyed by other people using voice assistants in public, so our reticence isn\u2019t entirely without foundation.<\/p>\n

There are some notable demographic differences, though\u2014the younger, the wealthier, and the more masculine you are, the more likely you are to use voice in public, and Cathy recognizes signs of greater acceptance into the mainstream, from Superbowl ads to Saturday Night Live spoofs.<\/p>\n

She admits, however, that the use of voice in public will continue to be an issue until a subvocalization technology is developed (apparently, NASA is already working on this) so that one doesn\u2019t have to speak aloud. She also points out that our working environments, where open space offices are still the norm, are not equipped for twenty people talking to their devices simultaneously.<\/p>\n

So, aside from ever-increasing adoption rates and subvocal communication, what does 2018 have in store for voice designers? \u201cMy hope is that we\u2019ll see more actual conversations and smarter systems of context recognition, which is something very built into us as humans, so it\u2019s very frustrating when our systems don\u2019t understand it. 2018 will be about smarter interactions with our voice system that go beyond one turn.\u201d Voice designers will be instrumental in driving this development:<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon Echo has over 25,000 skills, and a lot of people, especially developers, are making skills, but the question is: how are you going to make people use your skill? And, in my mind, that\u2019s where the VUI designers come in, because there are a lot of skills out there that may work if you say exactly the right thing in exactly the right sequence, but they\u2019re not very satisfying experiences. A designer can help with that and really make a great experience for the user, making the user want to come back.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The world needs VUI designers, then, or else we\u2019ll be consigned to awkward conversations with circuit boards for the foreseeable future. Taking a step away from the abstractions of machine-human interactions and 2018 predictions, I ask what it\u2019s like to be a VUI designer. How does a typical day pan out?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s ever a typical day, but common things I do include looking at anonymized logs of what people are saying to know where we\u2019re getting it wrong and how we can improve. I also spend time speaking with our customers\u2014the companies we interact with, to understand their needs for their patients\u2014as well as to the patients themselves, asking what they like and don\u2019t like, and I work with visual designers to help design and improve our mobile app.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I remark that it seems quite similar to the tasks of a UX designer: \u201cIt\u2019s just another design system\u2014with its own quirks and specialities, of course\u2014but so many design principles apply here.\u201d<\/p>\n

And (aside from taking the CareerFoundry course<\/a>, obviously), how should one go about entering the field of VUI design?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest recommendation is to try it. What do I mean by that? Do something called sample dialogues, which is like writing a movie script. Things like, \u2018Here\u2019s what the system would say, here\u2019s what the user would say, here\u2019s what the system would say\u2026,\u2019 and you play around, and then you use a prototyping tool like Sayspring<\/a>, Storyline<\/a>, or Pullstring\u2014all free tools that allow you to create real voice conversations where you can actually speak and try them out. You don\u2019t have to be a coder, and you\u2019ll even surprise yourself. More formally, you can study conversation theory, from H. P. Grice, for example, who came up with theorems of human communication back in the 70s. He introduces a lot of great concepts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cathy divides the history of voice into two eras: the cost-cutting era of IVRs (interactive voice response) where automated responders would stand in-between humans and what they wanted, and the new era, where automated responders carry out value-adding tasks other humans don\u2019t want to, whether that be ordering from a shop or selecting a track to play.<\/p>\n

Having been burnt out by IVR due to its ostensible lack of positive impact on the user, she\u2019s now buoyed by the new technology and the opportunities and benefits it offers users. Talking about Sensely, she says, \u201cWe\u2019re using the technology to actually help people\u2014people who might have difficult, chronic conditions, who need assistance every day, and I\u2019m excited about it. Our users are older and not particularly tech-savvy, but they don\u2019t need a two-hour course on how to use the app. They just speak, and I think that\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that VUI design is a burgeoning field that represents the next frontier in human-device interaction. If you\u2019d like to learn more about the field, check out Cathy\u2019s book, Designing Voice User Interfaces<\/a>, and CareerFoundry\u2019s VUI design course<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more about UX design? Check out these articles:<\/p>\n