I hate ‘speak to me’ phone menus. Numbers and buttons are accurate and FAST. how long does it take to push a button? how long does it take to say ‘check my balance’?<\/p>\n
3 more reasons why voice menus don’t work.<\/p>\n
1. I have no privacy. I have to say it out LOUD into the phone in the middle of a waiting room at the dentist or in a crowded elevator or even in the middle of the cubicle land. No, I don’t like people knowing what I am doing exactly at this minute.<\/p>\n
2. Again, it’s also about noise. I can’t always control the noise level of my surroundings. Sometimes kids are crying or cars are honking or some idiots are revving their engines for no reason.<\/p>\n
3. Less offensive to most of you but I am not a native speaker. I have an accent (some find it cute!) but the fact of the matter is I sometimes pronounce certain words in a non American pronunciation. The voice recognition system gets screwed up and it doesn’t know what to do and freaks out. Eventually, they made me speak to a real person. Why can’t I just push some buttons on my phone and be done with it — FASTER, SIMPLER and in a more PRIVATE manner?<\/p>\n
The take away is provide options for different types of user to optimize the user experience. The optimal solution is to ask the user if he\/she would rather use a touch tone dial system. Not giving the option to opt out of the voice menu system is in a way saying “I, the system designer, know what’s best for you, silly user. I know this is the best option whether you like it or not.”<\/p>\n
Dictating how user should interact with your system is just arrogant.<\/p>\n