10.6 Jargon

Jargon is defined as "the technical or specialized language of a trade, profession, or similar group." Like most other professional groups, speech technologists use a fair amount of jargon. Speech technologists include dialog designers, linguists, software engineers, and other speech scientists. Jargon is acceptable if the speaker is communicating with others in the same group. Otherwise, the use of jargon can induce reactions ranging from incomprehension to mild alienation.

In a demonstration of a VUI designed to furnish driving directions, we happened to hear the prompt in (74), although the jargon-free wording in (75) would have been more effective.

(74)

An error has been generated. Returning to Main.

(75)

Sorry, there was a technical problem, so we'll have to go back to the main menu.

The wording of the first part of (74) reflects the technical concept of error generation. In the second part of the prompt, "main" is a shortened form of "main menu." This truncation is frequent in the conversation of dialog designers, who may easily overlook the association between "Returning to Main" and the same-sounding "Returning to Maine." Although the context makes the meaning clear, this humorous connection comes more readily to listeners who are unfamiliar with dialog design.

In a dialog specification document for an application intended for airline employees, we encountered the message in (76). In this context, however, a more appropriate, user-friendly message would be the one in (77).

(76)

No travelers are defined for this employee.

(77)

Sorry, but it looks like the employee hasn't designated anyone for flight benefits.

The element of jargon is this particular use of "define," which is familiar to programmers and database specialists but not to typical users of this travel industry VUI.

Note, however, that jargon in itself is not always undesirable in a VUI. In this same interface, an example of appropriate jargon is the frequent use of the verb phrase "list for (a flight)," as in "Do you want to list for this flight?" When an airline employee "lists" for a flight, he or she is making an unconfirmed booking. This is different from "waitlisting," because employees can "list" for a flight that has plenty of availability. In any case, "list" is appropriate here because it is the jargon of airline employees in other words, jargon that the users themselves will expect to hear and want to use in the interface.