[Asterisk-Users] User interface issues (was voicemail menu structure)

[Paul Crick]

> Actually, I think that making the individual keystrokes
> user-configurable would not be all that difficult...
I like the idea of being able to totally customise how it works. I know
Octel does this - when I worked at Jersey Telecoms we replaced our carrier
voicemail platform with an Octel one and had keys 2 and 3 to delete and save
rather than the North American standard of 7 and 9.

I guess this could be done in a similar fashion to extensions.conf.. if I go
in to greetings, select my busy greeting, rerecord it, do I return to the
greeting recording menu or the voicemail main menu? It'd be nice to have the
choice?

> To be able to use Octel commands on Comedian Mail as Don
> suggests would be nice for a lot of people, and make
> transitioning to Comedian Mail a lot easier.
Yeah - there's a lot to be said for change, or a lack of.. It's another
selling bonus - "We can make the voicemail work exactly like your current
solution so when you upgrade, there's no relearning for the users" etc.

> my thinking is that Comedian Mail is its own thing with
> its own interface and users who have become accustomed to
> it, and it needs refinement before it needs an Octel emulator
I guess it's each to their own. Maybe * could come with a default Comedian
Mail configuration file then have some alternatives for Octel, Meridian
Mail, Panasonic, whatever?

> during playback, you end up pressing something like 337
> to delete the message, because first you need 33 to jump
> to the end, so that you can press 7 to delete. After
> playback is finished, you just press 7.
That used to bug me, but I've gotten used to it now. I found documentation
somewhere that said I could hit 77 during the message to delete it - that
works, but like you say it's not really intuitive. The whole 33 business
kinda bugs. It makes sense, different options active during message playback
versus menu option after playback completion, but pressing 339 to resave an
already saved message which is now due for deletion unless I resave is just
quirky.

One thing I really would like is doing away with 4 and 6 to move forwards
and backwards. After I've heard a message and saved or deleted it I'd like
to move on to the next message automatically.

> Having said all this, I think it is really more important
> the way in which the commands are prompted. My one real
> complaint about Comedian Mail is that you end up listening
> to too many options too fast, and not really in the order
> of relevance to your situation.
This throws open the whole question about verbose versus expert prompts.. do
we want to go there? ;-) Actually, maybe.. with all IVR kind of stuff, I'm
all about the user interface. The better it sounds, the more the user will
like and understand it, accept it. It can be down to simple things too.
Example: I worked on a local number locator. I pushed them to record digit
groups and pairs rather than reading back the phone number using single
digits, one at a time. Result? We spent a few hours in the studio, a little
bit more time coding, but now have a totally smooth sounding way of reading
back phone numbers. Call 1-888 245 4545 for a demo and let me know how you
think it sounds.

Since voicemail is probably a highly used feature on a phone system maybe we
should give some serious thought to this whole user interface/how it sounds
issue?

> 3. Figure out something about that whole
> */# finish/cancel/skip/stop business.
I've seen it on other postings and I'll add my $0.02 - I like the concept of
* to cancel and # to proceed. In systems I've developed before, we prompt
for a string of digits. If you press * midway through, we'll cancel the
entry and prompt for you to enter again from the start. Pressing * without
having entered any digits cancels out of the function and takes you back to
where you were. That said, we also often used "Press 1 to confirm" when we
needed to make sure the user really DID want to do whatever..

Any thoughts?

Paul