The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Speech Recognition
Thursday - January 05, 2006 10:30 AM in
I've been accused (thanks in part to our recent holiday-themed newsletter) of being a curmudgeon when it comes to speech recognition.
That's not quite true. I'm as excited about speech recognition technology as any other technophile.
But I have a big problem with badspeech recognition. Speech is a different medium than tone-based menus, and requires a different approach and much closer attention to issues of design and usability. Unfortunately, many systems still get deployed with one (or both) of two problems: either there's too little attention paid to the user interface design, or the design focuses on the gee-whiz aspects of the technology at the expense of getting the user's task done.
Remember, callers (mostly) don't care that you spend a million bucks on a speech system. They just want to get something done.
That said, I can't resist passing along a link to a collection of Bill Gates' statements about speech recognition.
(And before I get accused of being a curmudgeon on speech recognition again, I should point out that speech recognition on the desktop exists and actually works pretty well. But for most people and most tasks, a keyboard and mouse is a better interface than speech, which is why few people actually use speech.)
Posted by Peter Leppik
But I have a big problem with badspeech recognition. Speech is a different medium than tone-based menus, and requires a different approach and much closer attention to issues of design and usability. Unfortunately, many systems still get deployed with one (or both) of two problems: either there's too little attention paid to the user interface design, or the design focuses on the gee-whiz aspects of the technology at the expense of getting the user's task done.
Remember, callers (mostly) don't care that you spend a million bucks on a speech system. They just want to get something done.
That said, I can't resist passing along a link to a collection of Bill Gates' statements about speech recognition.
(And before I get accused of being a curmudgeon on speech recognition again, I should point out that speech recognition on the desktop exists and actually works pretty well. But for most people and most tasks, a keyboard and mouse is a better interface than speech, which is why few people actually use speech.)
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 10:30 AM by | | | |