Tellme About Dial Tone 2.0

"Voice is a very, very powerful interface that's not just great for the phone, but also for lots of different devices," Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's Business division, said in opening remarks on yesterday's conference call announcing the Tellme acquisition.

Raikes and Mike McCue, Tellme co-founder and CEO, repeatedly discussed user interfaces during the call. Raikes spoke of voice as a "natural interface," while McCue spoke about "combining a voice and visual interface."

User interfaces are difficult to do well. Sometimes the most sensible of concepts can flounder because the user interface is poorly conceived. For example, VCR recorders introduced the concept of time shifting, but how many people never programmed a VCR to record, simply because the process was too difficult? TiVo introduced a different user interface, the program guide, and launched a new and eventually successful product category. TiVo and the VCR recorder used the same time-shifting concept, but the user interface doomed real-world success of one and bolstered the other.

Six Tenets of Good UI Design
I have six criteria for successful technology products that generally define the user interface. A well-designed technology product should:

• Build on the familiar
• Emphasize simplicity
• Hide complexity
• Let people do something new they wished they could do
• Do what it's supposed to do really well
• When displacing something else, offer a significantly better experience

Google search is one of the best examples of the six criteria in practical use. Search builds on keyword concepts people use everyday without necessarily thinking about them, and the writing or typing of text is very familiar. Search emphasizes simplicity by presenting a single text box and hides complexity by using algorithms to generate meaningful results. Search lets people find things they might otherwise have to manually search for (Web is too big for that). Search works pretty well, although natural language would be better. For anyone using the Internet today, modern Web search is a whole lot better than what was (and was not) available before.

Microsoft's Wizard motif is example of a poorly-conceived user interface. Microsoft touted plug-and-play with Windows 95, but Wizards were required. The original iPod is example of a very good, multi-faceted user interface: Plug in the device and it synchronizes the music without Wizards or any real end-user action.

Where is the good mobile device interface? Early Palm handhelds used the stylus, but didn't require it. The touchscreen was and still is one of the best parts of the Palm user interface. Apple is looking to create a workable user interface with iPhone, using touch and voice. But the device is still months away from market. Still, the visual-and-voice approach looks promising.

1 Billion Served
The importance of a successful mobile user interface cannot be understated. According to IDC, cell phone shipments topped 1 billion units in 2006, up 22.5 percent year over year. Most people don't carry PCs, but they are likely to have a mobile phone. The platform is there, but not the right user interface to really capitalize on the potential capabilities.

More importantly: "Device shipments into emerging economies in Asia/Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have surpassed shipments to mature markets, and the difference between the two continues to grow," said Ramon Llamas, IDC research analyst, in a January statement accompanying the 1-billion shipment announcement.

Many emerging markets are undergoing technology skip, where the first computing and Internet-capable device is the cell phone rather than the PC. Many mobile users in these markets well never own a PC. Again, where is the user interface capable of unlocking the mobile device's potential?

Yesterday, McCue spoke about "Dial Tone 2.0." He explained how "the phone has been relatively unchanged in decades...that you have to type in a bunch of numbers to get something done, or to reach somebody."

He emphasized, "We think that when you pick up a phone, the phone should ask you, what do you want to do, who do you want to call. And you can say what you want; you can say call mom at home. You can say call Mike on his mobile phone. You can say call Mike and Jeff, and have a conference call immediately happen."

Voice is a very natural and familiar user interface. It's standard apparatus on most human beings.

"Let's face it, keyboards have their limits on phones and the ability to use voice is a good way to differentiate," said Michael Gartenberg, a JupiterResearch research director.

With the right user interface, Microsoft could gain competitive advantage, too, against Web platform rivals.

"The [Tellme] acquisition gives Microsoft an important weapon in its war with Google and Yahoo in search," said Roger Kay, president of research firm Endpoint Technologies, in Wayland, Mass. "Mobile search is the frontier and Tellme puts Microsoft at the forefront, enabling a potential end-run around Google."

Gartenberg agreed. "Steve Ballmer has made it no secret that he wants Microsoft to be a strong player in mobile search, as well as local services," he said.

But Microsoft needs to proceed cautiously. Voice is a starting point, not the endpoint. Who hasn't used frustrating voice-interactive systems that are the audio equivalent to a Microsoft Wizard? Step by step by step by step by step.

Also, some seemingly sensible Microsoft user interface motifs fumbled in the market. SmartDisplay is the classic example of failure. Additionally, Microsoft has failed to gain any real traction with the Tablet PC, in part because the user interface isn't good enough. Microsoft treated inking, which mimics writing, as the endpoint. But because of the PC, the keyboard is increasingly the more familiar motif than writing. Inking should have been the starting point.