The document discusses the creation of voice user interfaces (VUI) from scratch, highlighting its evolution, principles, and practical application examples. It outlines the characteristics and logic behind designing conversational flows for virtual assistants, including importance of user engagement and confirmation. Additionally, it emphasizes testing and continuous improvement in building effective VUI systems through tools like Dialogflow.

1. Creating VUI
from scratch
Where Sci-fi meets reality

2. WARNING
request.body.queryResult.parameters
[‘CodeNotInvolved’]
2

3. > I am
Stoyan Stoyanov
And i love
innovations
Hi there!
3

4. OVERVIEW 4
> Evolution
> WHY VUI?
> Assistants
> Principles
> Setting up a workflow
> Dialogflow
> Demo
> ShowTime

5. Character
mode
5
THE EVOLUTION
GUI
WEB
Mobile
VUI
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
PRESENT

6. 6

7. 7

8. ASSISTANTS
8

9. 9
HOW THEY WORK

10. > General - Bots/Assistants with specific flow
covering wide range of topics and contexts. Stays
between your bot and the user .
> Go Oriented - Bots/Assistants with specific flow
following a context (We are here!)
10
TYPES

11. 11
Voice
Only
Hybrid
Screen
Only
MODALITY FOR USAGE
CONTEXT

12. WHY
VUI?
12

13. PRINCIPLES
13

14. 14
COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES
> Quality - Do not say something if you are lack
evidence or can be a lie
> Relation - Contextual based conversation
> Quantity - Give as much information as needed
> Manner - Avoid ambiguity and be perspicuous
Note: Sometimes we can be ironic!

15. Forgot to tell you that I’ve found that sharing
your website to friends and customers will help
your website be discovered easily. Wanna try?
I hoped you will like it! Wow you just got your
first visitor. Congrats!
15
Hey Sto, Nice to
meet you
It looks
good.
I am Seemba! Your personal website assistant
and will help your business website get
discovered by new potential customers
I am amazed from the business you have there.
Congrats! I found it on {{URL_Address}} you
can also find it and share it with your
customers. Sure!
Other phrases: Thank you, amazing, what can i do, etc.. Other phrases: Why not. Okay, yeah, etc..

16. 16
Hey, have you
been to the party?
Yes!
Hey, have you
been to the party?
It was very good actually.
But just to clear are we
talking for Max’s or Peter’s
Party?
I didn’t know that
Peter is having one. I
was on Max’s. Where
were you?…...
COOPERATION?

17. 17
CONVERSATION PRACTICES
> Communicate what was understood. Involve the
Assistant in the conversation
> Stating the obvious just drives us mad
> Credit the user. Make him feel that he is controlling the
assistant not vice versa
> Give instructions only if needed by the user
> Be aware of mental overload
> Confirm implicitly and explicitly the user intents

18. 18
You can open the menu by saying to me
“Open menu” and after that “And order
me a pizza”. What you want to do?
How can i
cancel my
order?
How can i
make an
order?
Say “Show me the menu” or “Open the
menu”.
> Assistant do not closes the question, leading the user to wonder and to forget what to say.
> Assistant is not quantitative in his answer and not supportive to the user.
> Assistant is not driving the user to a certain action.

19. 19
If you have an order you can say:
“Cancel my order”. Otherwise can say
things like: “Cancel all my orders”
How can i
cancel my
order?
How can i
make an
order?
To make an order, try saying things like
"I want to order pepperoni pizza and
coke.," or "I want a salad without meat,".

20. 20
Sure. Want to have something for drink
with your pepperoni pizza?
I want to order 1
pepperoni pizza
Can i have a
coke please?
Okay, one coke for the mr. Is that right?
> IMPLICITE CONFIRMATION > EXPLICITE CONFIRMATION

21. SETTING UP A
WORKFLOW
21

22. > Assistant Persona
> Assistant logic
> Context
> The Script (a.k.a The prototype)
> There are no Errors
> Testing, testing, testing
22

23. > Seemba
> Fast
> Intuitive, Simple, Efficient
> Engaging with the user and always trying to help
him. Always approaching the user trying to help
him. He have strong knowledge of your business
23
BOT PERSONA:
CHARACTERISTICS

24. > Voice & tone is helpful, but not worried. The
friend that you need to rely on in your business
> Always energetic
24
BOT PERSONA: STYLE GUIDE

25. 25
BOT PERSONA: EXAMPLE
> “I am Seemba! Your personal website assistant and
will help your business website get discovered by new
potential customers. “
> I am amazed from the business you have there.
Congrats! I found it on {{URL_Address}} you can also
find it and share it with your customers.

26. > Shaping the basic logic.
This help us have an
overview of the whole
conversation and not dig
into the details of the
conversation
26
ASSISTANT LOGIC

27. > What device people are using?
> Where they are using it?
> Where is the user?
> What is he doing?
> How the experience influence over time?
> How relevant is the location of the user based on
what he wants to do
27
CONTEXT

28. 28

29. > Starting from the happy path (and extend with
the most common use cases)
> Creating the conversational repairs
> Testing, testing, testing
29
THE SCRIPT

30. Pizza Chef > Hope to talk
to you soon. Have a
wonderful day
30
> JOURNEY #1
User > Hey Google, let me
talk to Pizza Chef
Google > Sure, here is
Pizza Chef
Pizza Chef > Welcome to
Pizza Chef! Wanna show
you our menu before
ordering?
User > Yeah
Pizza Chef > Okay. You can
order margarita,
pepperoni, BBQ classic
and vegetarian pizza
Pizza Chef > Welcome to
Pizza Chef! Wanna show
you our menu before
ordering?
User > I want to order one
Neapolitana
Pizza Chef > What i can
offer you that is similar to
Neapolitana is our BBQ
classic pizza. Wanna try
it?
User > Yeah
> JOURNEY #2
Pizza Chef > Welcome to
Pizza Chef! Wanna show
you our menu before
ordering?
User > I want to have a
salad
Pizza Chef > We have
specialised only in
making pizza. Do you
want to try our champion
BBQ classic?
User > Nope, Ciao!
> JOURNEY #3

31. > Taking the errors and trying to do a
conversational turn over.
> Be graceful when you fail
> Do not bother the user by having infinite
prompts
> Use the Cooperative principles and especially the
the principle for Manner & Quantity.
31
THERE ARE NO ERRORS

32. 32
TURN OVER CONVERSATION
> Question answer pair
- A: “What day is today?”
- B: “The day that everyone relaxes”
> Listership signals pair
- A: “Wow, wow i cannot tell you what just happened?”
- B: “WHAT? WHAT?”
> Negations
- A: “This is the worst movie i’ve watched ever!”
- B: “I know!”

33. > Wizard of Oz - Using a person to respond to user
intents directly.
> Flexible, Bigger control, Better understanding, Not scalable, Good
when in discovery phase
> Record and hear
> Fast, Scalable, Can be used to tweak flow, wording etc.
> Goold old Usability testing
Note: A good practice is to test every script by saying it out loud, play it with a friend and check how it
sounds using a tool
33
TESTING, TESTING, TESTING

34. INTRO TO
DIALOGFLOW
34

35. > Tool for building VUI & CI powered by AI.
> Intuitive and easy to be used for creating high
fidelity prototypes and real products (but with a
developer)
35
WHAT IS?

36. 36
WHY?

37. 37

38. DEMO
38

39. SHOWTIME
39

40. > Reservation/Booking action
> Short Survey
> Joke
40

41. UX SKILLS
41

42. > Storytelling
> Technology Understanding
> Writing
> Open mind and curiosity
42

43. You can find me at:
LinkedIn: svstoyanov
Github: svstoyanov (Demos)
URL: svstoyanov.com (Under_construction)
Email: svs7oyanov@gmail.com
Facebook: svstoyanovv
43
THANKS!

44. 44
APizza Script
APizza Architecture
Actions on Google Reference
Text to Voice
VUI Books
Books download site
VUI Research
Intercom VUI
Medium ChatBotsMagazine
Celtx Script writing tool
Amazon script writing tool