Designing for voice

- Voice interfaces are not new,…but there has been a push in the space…with products like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant,…Microsoft's Cortana, and Apple's Siri.…All of these devices in digital assistance…are voice-controlled.…A benefit to having a voice-controlled interface…is that it allows the user to multitask.…For example, if you're cooking in the kitchen,…you can ask one of these products…to read out the ingredients…for the recipe you're working on…without stopping what you're doing.…While there's no interface for voice,…there's a lot of design thinking…that goes into designing for voice interaction…and a lot of limitations from a technology perspective.…

You may have noticed in your own experience…with these products that it's sometimes difficult…to get the answer you're looking for…without asking your question in a particular way.…The reason for that is because we have expectations…for how a conversation should flow,…and sometimes the context and nuance of a dialogue…are missing from a voice system,…and there isn't enough information…