Voice user interfaces (VUI) are complex systems that require in-depth design, prototyping and iteration.
There are various kinds of tools aimed to support designers and developers in building new voice-enabled products. This article aims to outline the best free tools available to help you to design, prototype and develop voice user interfaces.
Simple text editors are a good starting point in any design process. Any either online or offline editors will work just fine, as long as it helps you to get thoughts together. Such tools include everything from textbook to Google Docs.
Mind mapping tools are perfect when creating flowcharts, which helps to structure the information and build a conversation flow. One of the examples of such tools is diagrams.net, which is an open source, online, desktop and container deployable diagramming software that also comes for free.
Adobe XD is a comprehensive vector-based user experience design tool for web apps and mobile apps which can help you create an interactive VUI design. Adobe XD is an interface design first of all, but it also includes an option for voice prototyping. Adobe XD offers a free plan as a starting tier.
Any kind of spreadsheet tools can be of great help when designing all types of VUI. Spreadsheets can assist when planning possible user utterances variations, crafting possible intents and contexts of interactions. An example of a trending spreadsheet tool is Airtable, which is available for free, but you can also go with a good old Excel or Google Spreadsheets.
Voiceflow is a collaboration tool to design, prototype and build for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Starter tier is free and lets you create up to 2 projects and allows 1000 interactions per month, but for personal use only.
Dialogflow is a Google-owned platform that is used to design a conversational user interface into mobile apps, web applications, devices and bots. Google Dialogflow offers a Trial Edition with limited features and volumes.
Speechly is a spoken language understanding solution specifically designed to build voice user interfaces. You can use Speechly Dashboard for quickly prototyping your configuration and then integrate your configuration to your app for a full voice experience.
We can even help you build your configuration! Just contact us and we can build your configuration for you – for free!
Botsociety allows designers and marketers to preview and prototype conversational interfaces for Facebook Messenger, Slack, Google Home and more. Botsociety is available for free with certain limitations.
Landbot is a user-friendly no-code solution for creation of conversational apps. You can try out Landbot for free with their Sandbox plan.
Botmock lets you create conversation flows and interactive prototypes from a simple drag and drop editor, then share or test those prototypes and get feedback in one centralized location. Botmock offers a 15-day trial for a standard plan.
Fabble allows you to design and prototype Alexa Skills, Google Assistant Actions, chatbots, IVRs and other VUI/CUI together, no coding needed. The service is available for free and limited to the project's sizes.
We would like to keep this list live and update it as new tools for prototyping VUI appear. Let us know if we are missing any great tools by sending us an email
Speechly is a YC backed company building tools for speech recognition and natural language understanding. Speechly offers flexible deployment options (cloud, on-premise, and on-device), super accurate custom models for any domain, privacy and scalability for hundreds of thousands of hours of audio.
Speechly has recently received SOC 2 Type II certification. This certification demonstrates Speechly's unwavering commitment to maintaining robust security controls and protecting client data.
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