Tips for effective menu design: Part III

9. Avoid mixing voice and DTMF menu choices

If your application is voice enabled, avoid cramming your menu prompts with instructions on how to pick menu items by voice and by DTMF. Avoid, for instance, wordings such as, “You can say ‘check balance’ or press 1, ‘open account’ or press 2, or ‘transfer funds’ or press 3.” Instead, first offer the leaner voice-only menu, “You can say, ‘check balance’, ‘open account’, or ‘transfer funds’,” and only if the users seems to have trouble with it, revert to the mixed prompt, “You can say ‘check balance’ or press 1, ‘open account’ or press 2, or ‘transfer funds’ or press 3.”

10. Use the same part of speech/clausal form when listing menu options

Bad prompt:

System: You can say, “Balance,” “Open,” or “Transfer.”

Good prompt:

System: You can say, “Check balance,” “Open account,” or “Transfer funds.”

11. Keep you menus consistent with one another

For example: in the opening menu, you ask the user to indicate whether or not they are a registered customer and then you branch off accordingly. Make sure that after the user indicates that they are a registered customer, none of the sub-menus offers options that apply only to non-registered customers (e.g., “To speak with one of our agents about becoming a registered customer, press “3”).

12. Let users ask, “What are my choices?”

At any point in the call, the user should be able to ask, “What are my choices.” In response, the system should respond by, first, positioning the user in the menu tree, and then listing the menu items that the user can select from.

User: What are my choices?

System: We were transferring funds. I need to know which account you would like to transfer funds from? You can say, “Checking,” “Savings,” or “Money Market.”