AP3
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Presence / studying the interaction beneath the transcript

Voice Interfaces

Design software that speaks, listens, interrupts, and shares the room.

Why this matters

Voice changes the distance between a person and a product. It requires a precise model of listening, silence, turn-taking, confidence, privacy, and the handoff between speech, touch, and attention.

Concepts to learn

  • Turn-taking
  • Interruption
  • Visible state
  • Privacy
  • Speech/touch handoff

Apply It in Casset

Casset is the working environment for this skill—not the curriculum itself.

  • Use the Listening Companion experiment to make ducking, interruption, streaming, resume, and failure predictable.
  • Keep spoken responses grounded in artist-approved information and catalog metadata.

Suggested project

Voice liner notes

A grounded voice companion that keeps source, state, and control visible.

Open project notebook

Evidence of completion

These are completion conditions, not claimed achievements. Each stays planned until it links to a real artifact or verification.

  • implementationAn interruptible voice prototypeplanned
  • observationA quiet-room and public-context user testplanned
  • testsTurn-taking and recovery evaluationsplanned

Open questions

  • What does a respectful interruption sound like?
  • How much state must remain visible when the interface is spoken?

Related notes

Books, talks, and useful things

  • talk
    Designing with soundGoogle Design

Reflection journal

A voice product needs a visible partner; silence is part of the state machine.