I took some well needed time off work recently. During this time I focused on exercise, healthy eating and sleep. Of course me being me however, on day four, I had to magic up a whole new pet project to work on.
I had just bought a new fourth gen Echo Dot and had recently done lots of reading up on Voice User Interface (VUI). It had me excited and so I decided to do some research into how to build Google and Alexa skills. This gave me an idea to start a project to build an Alexa skill that would drive changes on a traditional Graphical User Interface (GUI).
For reference a VUI or Voice User Interface is a type of speech recognition system that allows people to interact with computers to perform tasks and retrieve information. VUI systems will typically converse with a user in a natural and realistic way, further raising the bar in the UX department. These systems often use artificial intelligence to enhance the communication exchange and so companies are now rushing to unify their software “GUIs” with new “VUIs” to give users a more productive, immersive and enjoyable experience.
This is what I am referring to as a “Unified User Interface” UUI. The combination of both an amazing GUI with an equally great VUI will modernise software in a powerful way. Unify the two main types of interfaces and make it one. For an all-round interactive and enjoyable (not to mention productive) experience. It’s all very exciting.
Here are some pretty good resources if you’d like to learn more about VUI:
