Episode 231: A Simple Lesson Learned In Voice User Interface Design - Data Driven Daily Tip 320

Voice User Interface Design is so new. It's so hard to think through every scenario of what a user might want to say to Alexa or Google Home, which is why this particular use case I think is a good one to share with you all. I recently built an Alexa Skill using Voiceflow, which allows you to map out your entire conversation with Alexa. So for example, my Alexa Skill is to let attendees of the Nashville Voice Conference know about their roles and responsibilities at the conference. At one point, after you identify who you are, if you're a featured facilitator, it asks you about if you'd like to know about Parking, Timing or your specific event preparation. One of the featured facilitators used the Skill and told me it didn't work, because he had tried all variations he could think of using "my specific event preparation".... Turns out, I hadn't accounted for the word "specific" in my synonyms in Voiceflow. So, it was an easy fix. I anticipate much of Voice User Interface Design (VUI) being like this.