Voice User Interface Design

Chapter 13. Optimizing Accuracy and Recovering from Errors

High recognition accuracy is at the core of speech interface usability. Accuracy is key for all user interfaces; the system must correctly “understand” the user's intent and must respond appropriately. However, accuracy takes on special importance for voice user interfaces, for a number of reasons.

First, the impermanent and dynamic nature of spoken interactions makes it hard for the user even to identify errors when they happen, much less take appropriate action to correct them. Second, the technology is imperfect; there will be errors, especially in difficult acoustic environments, such as those that have background noise or cellular channel distortions. Therefore, it is essential to ...