Relief from the audio interface blues

Abstract

Menus, lists, and forms are the workhorse dialogue structures in telephone-based interactive voice response applications. Despite diversity in applications, there is a surprising homogeneity in the menu, list, and form styles commonly employed. There are, however, many alternatives, and no single style fits every prospective application and user population. A design space for each dialogue structure organizes the alternatives and provides a framework for analyzing their benefits and drawbacks. In addition to phone-based interactions, the design spaces apply to any limited-bandwidth, temporally constrained display devices, including small-screen devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and screen phones.