Voice interface

Why is this important?

As speech recognition gets better, it becomes more and more practical to communicate with a computer or smart device via voice. For platforms this means new possibilities and requirements when it comes to designing the interface. Can the service be used through voice commands? What are the new use cases when the user doesn’t have to stare at a screen?

Things to keep an eye on

Improved speech recognition and text-to-speech services means that the border between voice and text blurs. You can have a chat where one person is speaking and the other typing. This also means that everything that is said can more easily be analysed, which raises concerns for privacy. On the other hand, voice controlled digital assistants such as Siri or Alexa become the contact point for users and thus have an influence on which service or platform is used: for example, if Siri is told to play a song, it will more likely do it via Apple Music than Spotify.

Selected articles and websites

The next mobile interface: when bots and voice merge
Voice Is the New OS: Getting Ready for the AI-First World
Voice is chat’s next battleground
Bots, Chat, Voice, Zero UI, and the future of Mobile Apps

Mikko Dufva

Research Scientist VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
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