Comparison of Telephone Menu Interfaces

Authors:

Simos Economides-economi@wam.umd.edu
Tina Tsui-tsuit@wam.umd.edu
Bjorn Ingebrigtsen-bei@wam.umd.edu
Jason Proznitz-proz@wam.umd.edu

Abstract

Telephone-based email retrieval services are used to send and receive email messages via touch-tone telephones. Auditory prompts guide users through a series of menus, listing options as users proceed through their sessions. This experiment undertook the task of comparing two email-by-phone services, CoolEmail.com and Shoutmail.com, noting factors that both add to and lessen each system's effectiveness. The goal of the study, from a human factors perspective, was to draw general conclusions as to what system characteristics would result in optimal use and the highest user satisfaction. In addition, the relationship between the naturalness of computer-generated speech and subjective user satisfaction was considered.

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