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Even though I agree with the points mentioned below about Dynamic Prompting and Design in general, I think there are actual appropriate uses of random prompts (by random meaning prompts that are pulled from a pool of possible prompt alternatives, not prompts that are driven by context or dynamic values). For example:
1) During user identification and/or authentication - asking callers to repeat a random sequence of letters, or asking a random security question from a set, for the purpose of increasing the security of a system (e.g. if someone listens to the answer to your question, they shouldn't be able to call back in and authenticate with the answer they just heard)
2) To provide tips and/or information once a caller has successfully completed a task or when, based on the context, it makes sense to present information the user might not be aware of - for example, if a system contains many features, or is constantly updated/enhanced, having "By the way" type of prompts at the end once a task has been completed and the user is likely to simply hang-up, it is sometimes useful to present those tips to educate callers about features/services they might not know about
3) When attempting to help users recover from a situation that might take place so early in a call that we might not know anything about the intent, which the user might visit more than once, and which furthermore might have so many different possibilities that it would be hard to only offer a narrow set of subchoices. For example, on a Natural Language Main Menu Router (SLM), sometimes it is helpful to have a handful of random prompts, each with a slightly different set of suggestions/examples
4) When trying to break the monotony of repetitive exit prompts that serve a particular purpose but that might not have a direct impact on the outcome of the interaction. For example, on a learning system, if you're asking your user to follow a certain sequence of steps and you're trying to encourage them along the way, it's helpful to have a random set of prompts with various "encouraging" short messages like "That's it", "Perfect", "Nice", "Good job", etc. so that you don't play back the same message over and over again, making it even more apparent that you're dealing with an automated system
Hope this helps,
Eduardo
1) During user identification and/or authentication - asking callers to repeat a random sequence of letters, or asking a random security question from a set, for the purpose of increasing the security of a system (e.g. if someone listens to the answer to your question, they shouldn't be able to call back in and authenticate with the answer they just heard)
2) To provide tips and/or information once a caller has successfully completed a task or when, based on the context, it makes sense to present information the user might not be aware of - for example, if a system contains many features, or is constantly updated/enhanced, having "By the way" type of prompts at the end once a task has been completed and the user is likely to simply hang-up, it is sometimes useful to present those tips to educate callers about features/services they might not know about
3) When attempting to help users recover from a situation that might take place so early in a call that we might not know anything about the intent, which the user might visit more than once, and which furthermore might have so many different possibilities that it would be hard to only offer a narrow set of subchoices. For example, on a Natural Language Main Menu Router (SLM), sometimes it is helpful to have a handful of random prompts, each with a slightly different set of suggestions/examples
4) When trying to break the monotony of repetitive exit prompts that serve a particular purpose but that might not have a direct impact on the outcome of the interaction. For example, on a learning system, if you're asking your user to follow a certain sequence of steps and you're trying to encourage them along the way, it's helpful to have a random set of prompts with various "encouraging" short messages like "That's it", "Perfect", "Nice", "Good job", etc. so that you don't play back the same message over and over again, making it even more apparent that you're dealing with an automated system
Hope this helps,
Eduardo
From: Peter Nann <peter.nann@...>
To: vuids@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 3:53:56 PM
Subject: RE: [vuids] Re: Random Prompting
I don't think Zeno was coming from an 'entertainment' angle at all.
My reading is that he was looking for a way to make systems feel less
'mechanical', and randomizing prompts is a rough (OK, probably poor)
way of doing that.
I get where Zeno is coming from - in 20 years I suspect we will look
back
on today's VUIs with rigid prompting schemes and probably see them as
clunky as a system that would say "Does not compute", or "Your response
was invalid" today.
But I agree with Phillip that random (as opposed to dynamic, as he
explained) prompting is quite pointless and very probably
counter-productive, especially for regular users.
- Your best prompt design is your best prompt design.
Randomizing things for no reason can only go one way - down. And it
makes other things like grammar tuning dicey/harder.
I hear where you are coming from Zeno, but as Phillip said, I don't
think you want 'random' prompting, I think you want 'dynamic' prompting
based on some extra knowledge you have/get about the caller.
- Otherwise, use the best darned prompt you can come up with.
(Apologies for that transparent attempt to 'talk American' in that line
above. ;-p )
-----Original Message-----
From: vuids@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vuids@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Paul Sawyer
Sent: Thursday, 20 August 2009 12:57 AM
To: VUIDS discussion list
Subject: [vuids] Re: Random Prompting
I agree with Phillip, and would add this: People come to a system,
whether web or VUI, to accomplish something, then get on with their
lives. With few exceptions, they don't come to be entertained by fancy
graphics or cool prompts. Whatever gets in the way of them accomplishing
their task is an annoyance. They know it's a machine. It should be a
pleasant machine, but also an efficient one.
Hope this helps.
-Paul Sawyer
________________________________________
Re: Random Prompting
From: Phillip Hunter
Posted by: "Phillip Hunter" phillip@... phillipwhunter
Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:41 am (PDT)
Zeno,
If you mean truly random prompting, that is, changing the prompt for no
other reason but to have a set of somewhat different prompts, then that
has
no place in VUI designs that I can think of. It would simply be a
gimmick
enjoyed by the designer. I can't even think of an experimental reason
for
it.
However, if you mean prompt content that changes in accordance with some
bit
of context, then the changes are not random and are likely to be helpful
if
the context is interpreted correctly and the content changed
appropriately.
This type of change more accurately mimics human-human interaction in a
way
that is helpful to both caller and application. This is also far easier
to
explain to anyone who might be approving your design. Changing prompts
in
this way is typically called Dynamic Prompting, not Random.
All the best,
Phillip
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 8:55 AM, vuiwoz <vuiwoz@...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am thinking about Random Prompting. For me, this feature always has
two
> sides:
>
> (1)
> It can make an application much more human-like, since humans also
tend to
> formulate a certain question/information in different ways.
>
> (I know, there are very contradictory opinions, whether a system
should be
> human-like or not. But IF you want to have system human-like, Random
> Prompting could be an effective way and it's easy to implement)
>
> (2)
> On the other hand, it hinders the user from creating a "mental map" of
the
> system. This could especially be bad for power-users but also for
> situations, where the user returns to a certain place within one
> dialog/call.
>
> Does anyone have had experiences with random prompting, or even
started
> experiments? Would be very interesting...!
>
> Regards,
> Zeno
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