Voice User Interface Design Is Changing UX. Is Your Website Ready?

As technology improves, it reshapes how we interact with the digital world. With modern voice user interface design, people can simply talk to their devices, asking questions and getting answers.

Analysts predict that the market for VUI design will reach over $76 billion by 2030, representing a compound growth rate of 20.1%.

This shift represents a huge opportunity for brands. It's a chance to establish yourself as a leader in the next era of computing right as it arrives. That could pay dividends for years to come, but you'll need the right strategy to get started. Learn more about the growing VUI design trend and tips for getting your website ready.

What Is Voice User Interface Design?

Voice user interfaces use voice recognition technology to accept verbal input as a way to control their actions on phones and computers. Deepak Wadhwani, Technology and Marketing Consultant at PROS Internet Solutions, says to think of it, "like talking to a smart assistant like Siri or Alexa, but built into a website to help users navigate, search, or complete tasks by voice."

With good VUI design, users can simply speak their intentions, instead of typing, tapping, or swiping on a screen.

Traditional voice input user interfaces (UI) required users to memorize particular prompts or commands. But modern VUI systems, such as Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, allow people to interact with their devices using natural language.

Why Voice User Interfaces Are the Next Evolution of UX

Over just the past couple of decades, user experience (UX) has evolved dramatically. We've moved from graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which made computers more intuitive with icons and menus, to mobile-first design in this current era of smartphone dominance. Now, voice-first experiences are taking center stage.

The growth of VUI web design is closely tied to the rise of conversational search. Instead of typing phrases like "best pizza near me," people are increasingly speaking queries aloud. This is driven by accessibility as much as convenience. Voice UI makes digital resources more accessible for people with vision impairments, mobility challenges, and learning differences.

The bottom line is that people are increasingly searching online by talking rather than typing. To capture those voice searches, you may need to revamp your website to appear in more voice-driven SEO results and with dedicated UX tools like Siri.

4 Key Benefits of Voice User Interface Design

As voice-first experiences continue to reshape how people search, the advantages of VUI design are becoming increasingly clear. Adding VUI elements to your site could help your company with:

1. Accessibility: VUI elements expand inclusivity, ensuring that your digital products serve users with different abilities.
2. Speed and convenience: Voice searches are ideal for finding information quickly and multitasking. Supporting VUI makes your website faster and easier for people to use, often improving bounce rates and conversions.
3. Natural interaction: Voice aligns with how humans communicate naturally, lowering barriers to entry. Designing for it can help you capture traffic that might not have found your resources otherwise.
4. IoT integration: From smart homes to connected cars, VUI powers seamless interaction across every device a user owns. You may win more traffic from non-smartphone sources with a strong VUI design plan.

Nirmal Gyanwali, Managing Director of WPCreative, says, "From a strategic view? Voice is exploding. Optimizing for it means better SEO, more featured snippets, and staying ahead of user expectations." 

Ultimately, VUI design will make your site more accessible and usable for people in all situations. This can improve traffic, reduce bounce rates, and boost conversions.

Challenges and Considerations in VUI Design

Although very useful, VUI design isn't without its challenges. You'll need to recognize these and design around them to unlock the full power of the strategy for your brand:

• Accuracy and natural language understanding: Voice recognition technologies still struggle to understand slang and complex questions. To capture more traffic, target voice SEO technology at simpler queries.
• Privacy and data security: Always-on listening raises serious concerns about user trust and data protection. Be transparent about how you collect voice data and give users the ability to opt in or out based on their preferences.
• Designing for different environments: Voice searches frequently occur in areas with high levels of background noise, from multilingual users, and with diverse speech patterns. You can refine your design for these issues over time through continuous testing.
• Balancing voice with visual: You'll still need to balance your voice design initiatives with traditional visual elements, which isn't always easy. For example, pairing voice features with visual confirmations on screen allows users to switch between modalities as needed.

These challenges may be tough to face on your own, especially if you don't have much internal design experience. Working with a professional UX agency can help overcome them.

How To Make Your Website Ready for Voice User Interface Design

Voice-first experiences are shifting from optional to expected. That makes updating your website an urgent priority. Gyanwali says, "Start with structure. Your site needs a clean, well-organized information architecture" to stand out in this era.

Here are four practical ways you can prepare your website for this new reality.

1. Optimize Your Content for Voice Search UI

First, you may need to rethink your SEO strategy. Voice users tend to look up information differently than people on smartphones and desktops. For example, it's faster to type "best pizza NYC" than "Where can I find the best pizza near me in New York?" But the latter is more natural for a voice user to say.

This means you'd see better SEO results with traditional users when targeting "best pizza NYC." However, you'd likely get better results with the longer, "Where can I find the best pizza near me in New York?" when targeting voice users.  As Gyanwali says, "Good VUI design anticipates user intent, responds clearly, and creates a natural flow, just like a real dialogue."

Nate Botelho, Principal and Owner of Temper and Forge, agrees, sharing, "The biggest step is making sure your website is easy for both people and machines to understand. That starts with structured content such as schema markup and clean semantic HTML so search engines and voice assistants can actually read your site."

Try optimizing your content with both short- and long-tail keywords in mind. That could mean:

• Adding more conversational keywords to your content, which reflect how people actually talk, not just type
• Using structured data and schema markups to help search engines surface your content in voice results
• Building FAQ pages that reflect the way people actually speak and target common voice queries for your industry

Don't worry if you're not sure where to start. Begin by implementing a few options, watch the user data as it comes in, and follow key performance indicators to refine your approach. You'll need to optimize based on data over time to truly transform your site.

2. Explore Voice Input UI for On-Site Interactions

Voice is transforming more than search. It's also impacting how users navigate across websites. To account for that, consider adding voice-enabled search bars and forms throughout your site. 

However, be careful not to overdo it. Botelho warns, "One of the biggest mistakes is overcomplicating [VUI design] by trying to make voice handle everything your website does. Voice works best in simple, focused interactions."

Start small by testing one or two user interface examples to gauge adoption. Then you can roll out further changes based on demand.

3. Prioritize Accessibility with VUI Design

Accessibility is another major piece of VUI design. By making your site more inclusive, people with a variety of abilities can engage with your content in whatever ways they prefer.

You can build VUI accessibility into your site by:

• Ensuring compatibility with all major screen readers and voice navigation tools
• Using clear labeling and semantic HTML for more vocally interactive elements
• Designing for multimodal use, so users can seamlessly switch between voice and touch as their needs evolve.
• Providing alternative feedback methods through text, sound, and haptics, so users with different abilities know their voice commands were recognized.

As you work, remember that accessibility improvements benefit all users, not only those with disabilities. For example, someone who's multitasking may want to swap between voice and tap inputs for greater convenience. Try to consider more than one voice user interface example during your design process to account for different needs.

4. Prototype and Test User Interfaces Early

It's important to test your VUI design elements early and often. Creating these systems can be complex, and you'll need data to guide your optimizations over time. The best approach is to prototype early and iterate often, with tactics such as:

• Making mockups of voice UI flows before fully developing them
• Testing voice features in real-world environments with background noise, accents, and multiple types of devices
• Researching where voice improves UX vs. where visual and touch still remain essential

As with other forms of design, you'll need to review user data to see whether you're on the right track with your VUI updates.

Nick Gramatikov, CTO at Canesta, recommends using tools like Voiceflow and Dialogflow by Google for designing and testing voice search and conversation apps.

Gramatikov also suggests utilizing Answer the Public, explaining, "it's an excellent content discovery tool for understanding what people are asking out loud, which often mirrors how they use voice search. These insights help you design voice interactions based on actual user intent, [bridging] the gap between user intent and voice feature planning."

You can also collect heatmaps and watch user data roll in to learn more about bounce rates and other metrics for measuring your impact.

Future Trends in Voice User Interfaces

The momentum behind voice user interfaces shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. We expect:

• The market size to reach $76.13 billion by 2030
• Continuing expansion of voice-powered enterprise tools, healthcare systems, and educational platforms
• Advancements in AI natural language processing, making voice interfaces more accurate, responsive, and personalized
• The emergence of true multimodal UX, blending voice, visuals, and touch for seamless cross-platform interaction

These changes are likely on the way regardless of when your company begins targeting VUI design. By getting started now, you can establish your brand as a leader and lay the foundation for your next era of growth. The longer a company waits, the greater its risk of falling behind.

Final Thoughts: Preparing Your Website for Voice-First UX

Voice UI has emerged as the next evolution of digital user experience. Forward-thinking companies are designing more interactive and accessible sites for customers to engage with in whatever way they prefer.

From quick voice searches while multitasking to deep research without typing, embracing VUI design allows you to deliver better experiences to users. That can improve your bounce rates, help with conversions, and make sure your company is ready for the next era of computing.

The next step is evaluating your current UX strategy and considering where VUI can add value to your target user. For expert assistance, reach out to a UX agency to get personalized support from marketing professionals.

About the Author

Jeanette Godreau Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Clutch

Jeanette Godreau crafts in-depth content on web design, graphic design, and branding to help B2B buyers make confident decisions on Clutch.  

See full profile