Speech-interface prompt design: lessons from the field

Abstract

Designers of IVR systems often shy away from using speech prompts; preferring, where they can, to use keypad input. Part of the reason is that speech processing is expensive and often error prone. This work attempts to address this problem by offering guidelines for prompt design based on field experiments. It is shown, specifically, that accuracy can be influenced by prompt examples, depending on the nature of the information requested.