It sounds, based on both testimonies in this thread, that Dragon Naturally Speaking is the very opposite of a well designed interface and is very much a dancing bear.
The people using it seem to require it, and they suffer through the steep learning curves and training time because they have to. It is like the command line. Steep learning curve, remembering commands, and in the end you are rewarded with new functionality you didn't have before. And most people won't bother, even when they know it is there and what it could do for them. No, a 'command based' voice system will NEVER be widely used. Because it is functionally no different than the command line, and as is self evident, computers didn't take off until the GUI came to abolish most hidden commands. Sure, a few geeks will revel in their voice command lines at home. I can even see a voice entry transcription system for linux. But the vast majority of users won't be able to handle anything that requires a lot of command remembering. A audio only command based system wouldn't work. Add in a screen, and now the primary nicety of the system is gone. That is, the ability to not be near a screen. Audio only voice command will have to be conversational. It won't be able generating a document. Typing is the sensible way to generate the written word. While dictation is a big movie cliche, the amount of people that chose to dictate after they got their own computer is microscopic. Why would a computer do a better job than a person in that regard? So the only people left using dictation software are people who can't type for some reason. Be it injury or handicap. And so a more appropriate solution for them is software with choices on screen that can be chosen with the voice. Which, if I am misreading what people are saying, could be what Dragon does. Should be at least. But there is nothing efficient about it. And so, back to the question that started all this, Voice command isn't very useful for general actions. And it never will be. At least not until the computer itself is so advanced that it can uphold a conversation. So If I say "I'm in the mood for some music... uuuuuummm.. How about some techno and some gangster rap mixed up randomly. You know, the stuff I normally listen to." I get something close to what I meant. There isn't a voice system on the market that could parse that. Hell, there isn't software that could handle it in text. But all of you know I mean the same as: "Play genres: Gangster Rap and Techno from my Most Played List." Now, saying either of these things would be much faster than getting up and going to a computer and loading win amp and telling it to filter my Most Played list down to just those genres, then drag it into a play list and then hit play and make sure random is on. But I'd have to read a book to know I can do that with the voice commands. Most people would just say "Play music" and it would be all their library on random. Which is what everyone I knew in college who wasn't a computer major did with win amp. Occasionally they would select a song as a starting point. And often they would skip. So what you'd see is "Play" "Skip" and "Play - song title" being about the only commands people would learn. You might be able to cram channel changing "Turn on comedy central" and lights "Lights off" in there. Who is going to pay to have the microphones installed in each room, and the speakers just to be able to do that? And if I am already sitting at the computer, clicking skip doesn't require me to put on a head set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36596 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
