The Elements of VUI Style: A Practical Guide to Voice User Interface Design

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephony systems have acquired a notorious (and often deserved) reputation for being frustrating to use. Currently deployed IVRs are generally perceived by users as little more than obstacles installed by companies to keep callers from reaching expensive human agents, rather than helpful tools that can effectively serve caller needs. Users are confronted with long prompts, confusing menus, and ambiguous prompts. Often, this frustration stems from the fact that the Voice User Interface (VUI) of such IVR systems is poorly designed. This book is a short, practical guide on how to design and develop effective and highly usable IVR systems.