Notes About Implementation and Programming

A typical speech-recognition system has a front end and a back end. The front end is where the system interfaces with the user (that is, what the caller actually hears and what the recognizer does). The back end is where it integrates with one or more databases (providing information to the caller in real time). Often the task of programming these components is handled separately ”and concurrently ”by a few developers; while one developer is programming the user interface, another can be integrating the system with the databases.

Once the system gets to the programming and implementation stage, there's usually very little for the interface designer to do until the development is complete and it's time to test the application. However, if the interface programmer completes work before the database programmer, there may be a need to create a temporary back-end database for testing purposes that simulates the workings of the real one. With this small database, which simulates the functionality of a real database, the interface programmer can test the system before the real database is hooked up. The designer may get involved at this point to advise the interface programmer on which types of data to load into the fake database.

For example, if we were designing a banking system, we might want to create a fake database consisting of several made-up accounts, each one representing a different type of bank customer. This would enable us to perform some quality assurance tests of the system against a broad range of callers and needs as defined in the Requirements Specification. Quality assurance testing is performed to verify that all the code works as intended. This testing is not the same as usability tests, which ensure that the target population can use the system and enjoy using it (see Chapter 8).

After everyone has successfully completed and tested their work, all that remains is to load the prompts (or audio files) that have been recorded by the designer and connect the system to the telephone lines (another task that is often also handled by a separate expert).