Well, we might never know why Christopher Blade Kotelly now wields his sword for Edify, but we can still see the effectiveness of one who is able to “usability test (his) own designs”.
On the Edify site, play the three real, live, hot call clips to the right of the page. These are deployed apps, and, theoretically, calls from real callers.
Now, before dissection, look here and here to see what they think of themselves.
So, on to the fun stuff. These VUIs suck (Oh, but why, Mommy, why??)
Why? Let me shoot the bottles off the fence:
1) Arbitrary, useless naming of persona
“I’m Max”?
Really?! Who cares? Am I supposed to be glad to meet Max? Can I come kick his ass when he doesn’t understand me or he doesn’t route my data to the agent? We don’t really care who waits on us at restaurants. We sure as hell don’t care to hear a VUI name itself. I'd rather talk to the Aibo! That would be interesting. By the way, you’ve heard how popular Claire was, right?
2) Lengthy intros and pinpoint instructions that say little and provide great opportunities for caller frustration
"In order to properly direct your call, I'll be asking a series of questions that require specific responses from you..." "At this point there are two ways I can help. If you're absolutely sure you need a repair..."
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX!!! SHUT -- THE -- HELL --- UP!!!!!! I DIDN’T CALL TO HEAR YOU TALK!!!!!
Oh, this is maddening and so inane. Do I care what Max needs? Do I care how limited his ways are to help me? So many usability tests have confirmed that long instructions are counterproductive that its hard to believe this still goes on. Oh, and in, er, the Blue Light sample, the intro goes on for OVER 20 SECONDS!!!!
3) Unclear mixture of directed speech with "natural language"
So, first Max wants easy answers, then, after he’s warmed up, just let it fly at him. Only one problem, HOW in the world will callers know to do that? The apparent fact is, they don’t! Callers tend to have a Law of Inertia. If you guide them in a directed fashion first, they tend to stay in that mode. If you let on that they can speak their mind first, then they might. But switching rarely happens in the wild. And certainly not with the clarity of this "real" caller.
-4) Annoying chirpy-ness and irritating helpfulness in persona and talent performance
“Speak your answers, and, if I lose you, just say ‘start over’”
What if I speak in tongues, and you lose me? This is sadly so common these days. Not speaking in tongues, but rather the oh-so-helpful and perky VUI that manages to sicken and offend at the same time. Tone it down! Why the 22 year-old voice insulting me that I might get lost? Or waiting to tell me how to let her know that I don't know something?
5) Wildly inconsistent lack /use of contractions and other standard conversational devices
“I’m” “What is” “you would” “what is” “I will” “Let’s” “you would”
Have these designers ever listened to real people talk?!?!?!? In that short clip, only TWO contractions are used yet at least 5 other phrases would almost always be contracted by native American-English speakers in this context. And listen to the unnatural repetition, the incorrect object stress, the blathering recovery prompt. Serenity Now!
All right. You know what? I couldn’t do it! I just couldn’t stand to listen to these enough to document all the things wrong. They are old, tired, weak… They are NOT Best Practice. They do not represent the best of what’s possible.
I simply beg, no IMPLORE, NO! GROVEL AT YOUR FEET! DO NOT use these as models for how to design. They are BAD. THEY SUCK!!!
These are shockingly bad designs and realizations of them, but what's even more shocking is that this is what they chose to show off their designs.
To find a Sears store, it takes 90 seconds before the system even asks for your zip code. IT TRANSFERS YOU TO ANOTHER AUTOMATED SYSTEM! And how you get a generic phone number from Sears that isn't associated with a particular store is kind of confusing to me. Perhaps there are good reasons for this being a long transaction (like maybe it's not that common because most people have the phone number and address of their local store when they call), but then why demonstrate this kind of call?
"Hi!" is the most amusing response I've ever heard to pressing 1. It's better than the now-universal "OK." Though the Ticketmaster persona sounds like in real life, she'd say "all righty, then!"
"The range of prices is from $95 to $55." See, if they had to rely on human beings to say it that backwards way it would never happen, but you can program a computer to consistently speak in deceptive confusing marketing speak.
Posted by: Brian | June 09, 2005 at 08:33 PM
Now hold on! Don't blame the new guy. It wasn't Blade's fault he wasn't there then. SONY was developed by Edify and some designers at NUANCE. There's even video of usability showing the Edify Wizard of Oz tester asking respondants face to face if they liked the voice in the WOz (which was the tester himself prior to using the real voice talent). Also, MAX wasn't named by that hunky hot Nuance persona guy ( who I admit to having slept with.) but wow is it ever recorded fast! And what about them universal commands. "Honey, did you set the TIVO to record The Sopranos? or say "go back" and I'll come home from work again." Sounds perfectly natural to me....
Also, check out the DTMF style command structure "If you want a doggie chew say "doggie chews" for a facelift say "Facelift".
Granted this is an app designed 3 years ago but then.... why do they have it on the homepage as an example of what they do. Haven't they done anything since? And where the hell is Andrew?
Posted by: Bunty Gunsmoke | June 12, 2005 at 02:25 AM