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We are taking users opinion as shown in the image. Is it fine asking users if they would like to use voice search or not?

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    Your question title doesn't match your question. It sounds like you're questioning user testing. Your title should be about asking users about voice search or adding features.
    – moot
    Oct 5, 2018 at 13:30
  • Can you explain if this is just an option provided for this particular page/interaction or if this is a system feature that is available to users at other times as well?
    – Michael Lai ♦
    Oct 6, 2018 at 11:44
  • I interpret your question to be about the design to allow speech input into the search box. If that is what you actually mean, the title and the text should be reformulated accordingly.
    – virtualnobi
    Oct 10, 2018 at 18:59

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I feel like this question can be answered in 2 ways, regarding asking users in general and your current specific problem/image.

Asking users in general

Asking the user for an opinion can, in some cases be a good thing. The answers you get however should in most cases be used as a way to see if there is an underlying problem.

For instance, a small example. Say your company has a lot of people that use public transport to get to work and it takes a long time. You ask your workers, what can we do to ease your life?

They answer that they want a company car to get to work faster. In most cases this 'car' will just reduce the travel time by a small margin. What they might really want is to reduce the travel time, so a better solution to the problem can be allowing them to work from home on certain days. Another solution can be to set up a system that lets employees travel together, spending time with someone to talk to can make the travel time feel less.

If you want to know more about interviewing users, nngroup has some great articles on the subject.

*Article was not in my initial answer, nngroup posted this recently.

Your current image/problem

I believe that your current way of asking the users is a bit misleading. The question you ask can be seen in 2 ways: 'Do you maybe want it in the future' or 'Do you want to use it now?'.

For a user, it currently looks more like if he/she answers yes you can use voice search to find a product/service (small extra hickup might be that I start talking to my phone and say 'yes' but your system does not respond because I should first click yes).

However, I believe you are more looking for information if you should implement it in the future. So now, you have a clash in your intention and what the user can do. I would advice to ask questions to gather information later, maybe after they used the service (so after they bought your product) or you can email them later (remember, EU law requires you to ask permission first!) with this question.

Implementation

Voice search, is currently to my understanding an advanced search feature for people other than millennials (apparently 35.8% of the millennials use voice search). As Zuluk mentioned, just implementing the function could be the best option rather then asking (However, make sure it works correctly. Voice search that does not work properly is bad UX). I even would go as far not to offer a question box but just use an icon like Google uses in the search bar. Example of voice search icon I believe an icon like that will be more or less the standard in the future.

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    +1 for taking a step back and analyzing the bigger picture
    – Big_Chair
    Oct 5, 2018 at 9:38
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    "a system that lets employees travel together ... can make the travel time feel less." I think that depends very much on who you work with!
    – Toby Speight
    Oct 5, 2018 at 12:32
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    It's a great answer - a yes/no question that must be answered is an irritant, whereas saying, "Here's something that you might like to try" isn't as pushy.
    – Toby Speight
    Oct 5, 2018 at 12:35
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    I was considering advising OP to rephrase their message as "Would you like to turn on voice search?" and didn't realize until reading this that they (might) be trying instead to poll users for future features.
    – Kamil Drakari
    Oct 5, 2018 at 14:19
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In my opinion it is a very good idea to give the user the choice to type into textfield or to use voice assitance.

The best implementation might be not to ask the user, but to support both or support text input at standard and give the user the choice to activate (just say yes, I want to use voice assistance) voice input. Because the user has no added value by clicking NO in your screenshot, except you save his decision in a cookie to use this answer for further cases.

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  • Agreed, + users may change opinion. I have clicked NO, and have no more voice option. In 4 months I see at my colleague he is using that feature and change my opinion that is cool now and I want it.
    – xul
    Oct 5, 2018 at 9:42
  • +1 Thanks for your contribution to UXSE :) I think you save provided a good rationale for your answer, and to make it more complete you can also add some references or examples to illustrate your point.
    – Michael Lai ♦
    Oct 6, 2018 at 11:42
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It is always nice to ask. Do keep in mind the flow your user might already be in. Does it make sense at that point in the flow to send them to voice search? Will that help make their search more enjoyable? Will it make it faster? Is the user or the company more likely to benefit from the switch? Your answer should be based on these considerations. When in doubt it is always better to stick with the tried and true instead of increasing pain points and other areas of friction. Having defined personas to bounce the question at might also help solve the problem.

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