Dynamic and adaptable system and method for selecting a user interface dialogue model

• US 7,080,323 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2002
• Issued: 07/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P.
• Inventors: Knott, Benjamin A., Bushey, Robert R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Application Number:
  US10/263,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20040066416A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 715/747, 715/744, 715/745, 715/866, 715/727, 715/728, 715/978, 715/740, 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.08, 379/265.11, 379/265.13, 379/88.08, 379/88.14, 379/93.05, 379/93.06, 379/93.09, 379/93.11, 379/917, 705/1, 705/8
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/355 Interactive dialogue design tools, features or methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/978 Audio interaction as part of an operator interface

Abstract

A communication system includes a selection module for selecting appropriate user interface types for nodes within a task. The selection module interacts with a selection criteria library and a user interface dialogue model library to determine an appropriate user interface. Selection criteria library and user interface dialogue model library may be selectively and dynamically adapted to reflect environmental, customer and organization changes.

Claims

1. An adaptable user interface selection system comprising:

a selection module operable to receive a request for a user interface dialogue model for a dialogue node within a communication action, the selection module having a criteria evaluation module and an interface scoring module;

a selection criteria library including a plurality of selection criteria, each selection criteria having an associated criteria weight;

a user interface library including a plurality of user interface dialogue models, each of the plurality of user interface dialogue models having a criteria score for each of the plurality of selection criteria;

the criteria evaluation module operable to retrieve the plurality of selection criteria and the associated weights from the selection criteria library;

the user interface scoring module operable to retrieve the associated criteria score from the user interface library and determine an interface score for each user interface dialogue model; and

the selection module operable to select the user interface dialogue model having the highest interface score.

2. An adaptable user interface selection system comprising:

a selection module operable to receive a request for a user interface dialogue model for a dialogue node within a communication action;

a selection criteria library including a plurality of selection criteria, each selection criteria having an associated criteria weight;

a user interface library including a plurality of user interface dialogue models, each of the plurality of user interface dialogue models having a criteria score for each of the plurality of selection criteria;

the selection module operable to communicate with the selection criteria library and the user interface library to calculate an interface score for each dialogue model and select a user interface dialogue model for the dialogue node.

3. The selection system of claim 2 wherein the selection module further comprises:

a criteria evaluation module operable to retrieve the plurality of selection criteria and the associated weights from the selection criteria library;

a user interface scoring module operable to retrieve the associated criteria score from the user interface library and determine an interface score for each user interface dialogue model; and

the selection module further operable to select the user interface dialogue model having the highest interface score.

4. The selection system of claim 3 wherein the user interface scoring module determination of the interface score for each user interface dialogue model includes multiplying the associated criteria weight of each criteria with the associated criteria value.

5. The selection system of claim 2 wherein the dialogue node further comprises at least one associated variable value for adjusting the interface score.

6. The selection system of claim 5 further comprising the at least one associated variable value operable to adjust the criteria weight associated with at least one selection criteria.

7. The selection system of claim 5 further comprising the at least one associated variable value operable to adjust at least one criteria score associated with at least one user interface dialogue model.

8. The selection system of claim 2 wherein the selection criteria library includes at least two criteria selected from the group consisting of cost, customer satisfaction, automation rate, task completion rate, task complexity, confidence of outcome, time in system, list length, interface of previous node and dialogue state counter.

9. The selection system of claim 2 wherein the user interface library includes at least two user interface dialogue module selected from the group consisting of speech statistical language model/natural language understanding, speech directed dialogue, touch tone Interactive Voice Response, and service representative.

10. The selection system of claim 2 further comprising:

a persona library including call specific factors; and

a persona consideration module operable to evaluate the user interface dialogue module selection based upon the factors of the persona library.

11. The selection system of claim 2 further comprising a feedback module operable to automatically adjust the criteria weights and the criteria scores.

12. The selection system of claim 11 further comprising:

the adjustment module operable to adjust the criteria weights and the criteria scores based upon at least one factor selected from the group consisting of environmental factors, customer factors, and organization factors.

13. The selection system of claim 2 further comprising an adjustment module operable to allow selective adjustment of the criteria weights and criteria scores.

14. An adaptable selection module embodied in a machine readable medium comprising:

a criteria evaluation module operable to retrieve selection criteria and associated criteria weights from a selection criteria library;

a user interface scoring module operable to retrieve criteria score information from a user interface library and determine an interface score for each of a plurality of user interface dialogue models; and

a user interface dialogue selection module operable to select the user interface dialogue model having the highest interface score.

15. The adaptable selection module of claim 14 further comprising a persona selection consideration module operable to evaluate the appropriate selected user interface dialogue model.

16. The adaptable selection module of claim 15 further comprising the persona selection consideration module operable to evaluate each selection of a voice-activated type user interface dialogue model.

17. The adaptable selection module of claim 14 further comprising a feedback module operable to automatically adjust the criteria weights and the criteria scores.

18. A user interface dialogue model selection method comprising:

receiving a node of a communication action;

retrieving criteria and associated criteria weights from a criteria library;

retrieving criteria scores for a plurality of user interface dialogue models;

calculating an interface score for each of the plurality of user interface dialogue models; and

selecting a user interface dialogue model based upon the interface scores.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising automatically updating the criteria weights in the criteria library based upon factors selected from the group consisting of environmental factors, customer factors, and organization factors.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving at least one variable value associated with the node; and

incorporating the variable value into the interface score calculation of at least one of the plurality of user interface dialogue models.