The Potential of Voice Control

The more natural and intuitive software or an application is to use, the higher the acceptance and satisfaction of customers. Especially for apps that require short onboarding and are used “quickly, on the side,” simple operation combined with flat navigation through the individual functions is elementary. Contrary to this paradigm, an app should offer an appropriate range of functions despite its trivial usability (keyword usability) and cover as many user needs as possible. Compounding this is that for mobile apps, due to screen size, space for information and functional elements is very limited, and the application quickly appears “overloaded.” If a user consequently feels overwhelmed and cannot find the desired function within a few moments, a certain rejection of the app sets in. This phenomenon is also addressed by Yu-Kai Chou in his book “Actionable Gamification”:

“Far too often, Onboarding experiences for products feel confusing, too hands off, or too complex. This results in the user feeling stupid. If your user feels stupid during Onboarding, then you’ll be fighting an uphill battle along with the user (think Google+).” http://yukaichou.com/gamification-study/4-experience-phases-gamification-2-onboarding-phase/

To counteract this problem, we increasingly rely on the use of voice control in apps. This allows an application to be centrally operated without the user interface appearing overloaded. For example, a complex filter function of a shopping app can be greatly simplified for the user. With the sentence: “I want offers for groceries within 10 km” or “Fruit from Edeka, Rewe, and Netto,” the filter parameters for category, location, or store can be set very quickly.

An intuitive voice control can be used for many more use cases. A work environment characterized by high turnover, seasonal work, or low familiarity with IT processes is particularly interesting. Here, voice control can enable simple and fast operation of complex tasks. A warehouse employee could, without more detailed knowledge of logistics, have the corresponding data displayed on a stationary or mobile display with the words “Show me goods receipt for order number 123” – without having to get off the forklift.

A follow-up article in this context deals with the development of voice control and integration into a React-Native app: Voice Control with Api.ai in a React-Native App