Prompts

Prompts are the utterances that the system plays in order to elicit responses from the user. Well-designed prompts are crucial to a system's success.

Language in a Voice User Interface (VUI)

In the early days of conversational speech systems, there was a great deal of debate about whether the goal of modeling human-to-human conversation was an appropriate one. Those opposed to so-called affective computing argued that human-to-human conversations were too varied, nuanced and situated in context to be amenable to human-to-computer interactions.

Speech system designers have now demonstrated that natural conversational speech and personality both contribute to a desirable result—user satisfaction.

The Function of Prompts

Speech systems ask questions. The only way a system can understand the answer is if the user's response is in grammar. A user must use the words or phrases that the recognizer has been programmed to recognize. In an ideal Natural Language system, prompts frame the questions so that the user speaks in grammar at all times. Users may have a sense of conversational freedom, but in reality, the prompts are directing them to say exactly what the recognizer needs to hear.

Systems also need to provide useful information to callers. Well-planned prompts can make the difference between a system that is immediately useful and a system that has to be learned. Unambiguous and elegant language can convey complex information without making extraneous demands on the user.

For Further Information

The following table lists other topics discussing prompt design.

To	See
Get more information on writing prompts.	Introduction to Writing Prompts
Get more information on different prompt forms.	Prompt Writing Guidelines
Get more information on mixing text-to-speech and pre-recorded prompts.	Prerecorded Prompts
Get more information on audio production.	Audio Production