{"id":1555,"date":"2016-05-19T23:47:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T23:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ptpinc.com\/staging\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2022-04-28T16:14:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T23:14:17","slug":"emotional-intelligence-driven-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ptpinc.com\/staging\/cx-culture\/emotional-intelligence-driven-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Intelligence-Driven Voice User Interface Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent series of radio ads<\/a> that feature a bereft and primitive attempt at a telephone customer experience, Ruby Receptionist entreats us to \u201crediscover the lost art of human interaction.\u201d\u00a0 Have our automated voice systems and digital interfaces become too impersonal?\u00a0 These ads succinctly call out the challenge faced by customer service user interfaces: \u201cMaking your customers feel special, while making you look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"tired<\/p>\n

Another popular trend is to think of customer service interactions along the lines of effort.\u00a0 Matthew Dixon claims that the best path to customer loyalty should not be the often sought after goal of a special<\/em> experience, but rather the more mundane, but no less critical, effortless experience.<\/p>\n

Whether we are trying to make our customers feel special, or to reduce their effort, the emotional toll on the user seems to be front and center.\u00a0 At the end of the day, a customer who is saved from excess emotional effort and strain, it would seem, is the customer who will remain loyal and happy.\u00a0 But surely the multitude of best practices we have learned in the last generation of voice and digital interface design, can still be exploited to achieve this goal?<\/p>\n

Having begun to study Emotional Intelligence (EI) (see, for example, Replacing Bad Habits<\/a> and Bringing EI to PTP<\/a>) and how embracing EI competencies and techniques allows one to manage emotions and relate more effectively to co-workers and clients, I, along with a few of my PTP colleagues, started to notice some interesting connections between EI principles and Voice User Interface (VUI) best practices.\u00a0 Perhaps by viewing VUI design through an EI lens, we can wrap best practices in the cocoon of emotional intelligence to simultaneously eliminate friction and make the customer feel good.<\/p>\n

The essence of EI is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. User Interface (UI) design can benefit from a similar approach.\u00a0 By recognizing, understanding and managing our own emotions and thereby influencing the emotions of others, we can improve our ability to relate to clients, win sales, and garner repeat business \u2013 so why not use these same ideas to improve our IVR and digital interface systems and improve our users\u2019 engagement and satisfaction with our UIs?<\/p>\n

Taking this line of reasoning one logical step further, it is possible, at least roughly, to map the established best practices in UI design for digital and voice channels to the standard set of EI principles, such as the one laid out by Daniel Goleman in Working with Emotional Intelligence\u00a0(see Figure 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
PERSONAL COMPETENCE
\n<\/strong>HOW WE MANAGE OURSELVES<\/td>\n		SOCIAL COMPETENCE
\n<\/strong>HOW WE HANDLE RELATIONSHIPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
\n

Self- Awareness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emotional Awareness<\/p>\n

Accurate Self-Assessment<\/p>\n

Self Confidence<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Empathy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Understanding Others<\/p>\n

Developing Others<\/p>\n

Service Orientation<\/p>\n

Leveraging Diversity<\/p>\n

Political Awareness<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Self-Regulation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Self-Control<\/p>\n

Trustworthiness<\/p>\n

Conscientiousness<\/p>\n

Innovation<\/p>\n

Adaptability<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Social Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n

Influence<\/p>\n

Communication<\/p>\n

Conflict Management<\/p>\n

Leadership<\/p>\n

Change Catalyst<\/p>\n

Building Bonds<\/p>\n

Collaboration\/ Co-operation<\/p>\n

Team Capabilities<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Achievement Drive<\/p>\n

Commitment<\/p>\n

Initiative<\/p>\n

Optimism<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Figure 1: Taken from “Working with Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Can a User Interface Exhibit Emotional Intelligence?<\/h3>\n

While there may certainly be some VUI design best practices that have little to do with EI (e.g. making questions clear and unambiguous, avoiding phonetic similarities in response options, etc.), there are many that directly correlate to and complement EI precepts.\u00a0 The list of best practices is readily available to anyone searching the internet (for example Jason Brome’s Commandments of VUI Design<\/a>, Paul Seibert\u2019s VUI Design best practices<\/a>, and Vicki Broman\u2019s 10 Best Practices for Making the IVR a Desirable Destination<\/a>, to name a few).\u00a0 \u00a0When you read these, the connection to EI jumps out at you.\u00a0 So much so, in fact, that one begins to realize that most techniques we use to engage the user, not overburden the user, treat the user in as human a way as possible \u2013 and even manage the user\u2019s emotions \u2013 draw directly from the (until now, implicit) objective of imbuing the system with Emotional Intelligence. I\u2019ll walk you through several ways emotional intelligence informs user interface design.<\/p>\n

Empathy<\/h3>\n

Examples abound. Take empathy, the grand-daddy of EI competencies.\u00a0 How does a VUI express empathy for the caller?\u00a0 The machine should be sensitive to the user\u2019s answers.\u00a0 It could:<\/p>\n