[IxDA Discuss] Why isn't voice-based UI mainstream?

[Peyush Agarwal]

I think the problem w/ voice-based UIs are/would be:
1. Technical - dealing w/ accents, sound levels, ambient noise etc.
2. The computer would need to understand what we 'mean' as opposed to visual UI where we click what the computer has to offer
3. Humans work better by recognition rather than recall. Visual UI's aid recognition, while voice UI basically requires good recall. You'd have to remember the exact command that'd generate desirable response or else you're back to #2.
4. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of voice based interaction with a computer - it is essentially serial, as opposed to visual UI which is parallel. This is one of the reasons why I think the iPhone's visual vmail was such a hit. In this respect, the computer would really need to get to the level of a human-human interaction - just "knowing" when to interrupt and when to get interrupted in order to carry a serial interaction with almost parallel efficiency.
5. Probably I'm just used to the keyboard/mouse, but I think talking to the computer would be tiring, unless of course you're doing StarTrek - volume, tone, tenor, clarity, noise no bar - and maybe it'll be workable enough...


-Peyush