He Says,She Says: Does Voice Affect Usability?

Abstract

Interactive voice response systems (IVRs) are ubiquitous user interfaces that allow customers to gather information and execute transactions. Because the entire user interaction is auditory-based, the voice used in the IVR is of high importance. Entities that field IVRs go to great lengths to select appropriate voices, usually on the basis of aesthetics of the voice, or on branding considerations. While much has been written on the usability of these IVR systems from the perspective of navigation, the impact of the voice on the usability of IVRs has not been well explored. Towards this end, we investigated the impact of voice personality and speaker gender on the usability of an interactive voice response system. Results suggest that voice characteristics can have an impact on the perceived usability of the system, with male voices resulting in higher usability metrics than female voices.

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