Help fix Speech Technology Magazine's VUI

This month's SpeechTech Magazine lead editorial by David Myron, the magazine's editor, talks about how the magazine's IVR "sucks" and how Myron was alerted to that fact by a "known speech technology expert."

The expert apparently lambasted Myron by pointing out that the system opened with "a long, rambling monologue that provided virtually no value" and added that it "even had the ‘please listen carefully as our stuff has changed’ nonsense. Surprised that you didn’t have a Web hype or a couple of ‘Your call is important to us’ included. When I pressed 0, the system said that wasn’t valid and then turned around and told me to press 0 to reach an operator."

First, I give David credit for owning up to committing close to an egregious mistake by not making sure that the Magazine's IVR was a showcase of what speech technology can do.

I also give him credit for taking the next step to fix the problem:

[W]e’re turning to the readers of this magazine for help. I encourage independent VUI consultants to call 212-251-0608, navigate through our IVR system, and email me suggestions for improvement. The VUI designer with the best suggestions will be announced in the magazine, win a three-month, full-page ad placement in Speech Technology magazine (our production team will even create the ad for you), and we will also place the winner on our editorial advisory board for the next year. If this isn’t enough, we may even dance around the water cooler and chant your name.

One thing to note here is that David doesn't seem to understand something fundamental about design (VUI or otherwise): the need to talk to the customer and to understand what they want out of the IVR application when designing a system. Instead, he talks about the system as something out there that needs to be tweaked "objectively". I will ping him on this and maybe even offer to host their solution for free at Angel.com.

And by the way, I can bet my bottom dollar that the so-called "known speech technology expert" was none other than Walt Tetschner. He has three or four things he complains about constantly (and correctly I would say), and he touched on three of them here: length of opening prompt, the "please listen as our stuff has changed" and of course, pressing zero and getting to a human. But the real giveaway is the use of the word "nonsense" to describe behavior he doesn't like. A pretty predicatable character, I must say....