Conversational Speech Interfaces
Jennifer Lai and Nicole Yankelovich

1. Introduction to the Use of Speech in Applications
   • Benefits of using speech
   • Challenges
   • Overview of the types of applications that use speech
2. Introduction to the Technologies
   • Speech synthesis
     • Types of synthesizers (no need to cover - refer to chapter 12)
     • Tradeoffs in using synthetic speech vs. natural speech in applications
   • Speech recognition
     • Variations in recognizers (no need to cover - refer to chapter 9)
     • Accuracy issues that effect design
   • Speaker Identification and Verification
3. Speech User Interface Design Issues
   • Keeping the conversation in Conversational Interfaces
   • Design Issues for Telephony Speech Applications
     • Dealing with Latency
     • Ensuring the right amount of Feedback
     • Prompts - the Heart of the System
       • implicit vs. explicit
       • incremental
       • tapering
     • Handling Errors
       • types of errors
       • error strategies
       • the use of modeling
     • Dialog styles
     • Providing Help
     • Sample application
       • Telephony email system
   • Using Speech in a Multi Modal or Embedded applications
     • Creating a dialog partner
     • Multimodal prompts and error handling
     • Sample application
       • Multimodal email application
4. UI Issues in the Speech Application Life Cycle
   • Natural Dialog pre-design studies
   • Using Wizard of Oz studies for speech applications
   • Usability Testing for speech applications
     • In the lab
     • In the field