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Introduction to VUI Design

Good sound prompts can dramatically improve the experience of your customers. The key to a well rounded Voice Site is good information flow and sound files that prompt your callers to say the right things.

Writing Effective Prompts
* Directed Speech.
Modern speech recognition systems work better when callers are directed towards saying one of a few choices. For example:

X "What would you like to know?"

... will yield poor recognition results from the caller, since he could be saying many things to respond to this question. Instead, use:

√ "You can say Opening Hours, Driving Directions or More Options."

This will lead the caller to say one of the keywords you provided to Angel, and will result in better recognition.

* Adapting to caller mistakes

Sometimes callers won't understand your Voice Site instructions. They may not respond or say something not in your list of keywords. For these situations Angel offers Advanced Dialog Options. In your sound prompts, explain the choices available in more detail. For example:

Initial prompt — "You can say Opening Hours, Driving Directions or More Options."

If caller doesn't respond — "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Please say Opening Hours, Driving Directions or More Options."

If caller still doesn't respond — "I'm sorry, I STILL didn't hear you. Press 1 for Opening Hours, 2 for Driving Directions or 3 for More Options."

By giving more information to your callers, and eventually keypad equivalents, you will alow them to recover from their mistakes and have a more successful experience.

* Scripting your sound prompts.

For larger Voice Sites it's useful to keep a document with all the prompts you plan to use. It's a practical way to refine the wording. Later on it will be essential for the voice talent performing the recording.

Creating a Persona
Sound prompts convey much about you, your brand and your approach. Effective Voice Sites make use of the concept of "persona', or "virtual voice". The idea behind it is to associate a consistent character to the sound prompts in your application. A well-crafted persona contributes to caller comfort, ease of use and satisfaction.

A persona is created by matching psychological attributes about your organization (formal/informal, young/established, national/regional) with the expressive style of your prompts, and the voice of your voice talent professional.

A good place to start is to listen to other voice systems and samples from our partners.