Give the user some time!
Several years ago a telecom company was implementing a network-based voice dialing system. The success rate was pretty low at first, about 30%. For the service to survive, it had to get a lot better than that.
At the same time, accessibility advocates, excited by the prospect of hands-free dialing, were complaining that some people with both impaired dexterity and speech were not having any luck. The system was cutting them off if they paused between digits.
As an experiment, they tried extending the total speech time and the inter-digit time. Success went up to 80%. It turned out that non-disabled users had been timing out just like the users with impaired speech. Although they heard the "speak now" prompt, they didn't immediately respond.
Even for machines, patience is a virtue.
World Usability Day 2007 is sponsored by:
