Translated from 日本語 • View original Hello, this is Aimi Nakajima.
I devote myself every day as a VUI designer. The most exciting news in recent times was the announcement of a new device for Amazon Alexa! It's exciting to feel like a wave of VUI is coming to our lives.
I tried the VUI workshop in English
The other day, we held a "VUI Workshop by Design Sprint" in English. As an English training.
- VUI
- Workshops
- Design Sprint
- English
- Training
Somehow the keyword is Morimori
Probably the only one in Japan! It may be the only initiative in the world, so I would like to introduce it to you.
What is VUI, Design Sprint?
VUI = Voice User Interface, which refers to the interface that is input and output by voice. Unlike GUIs that can guide operations with buttons or text, smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are representative VUI products, and it is important to design the dialogue and be easy to understand that can be recognized only by sound.
ISAO regularly hosts VUI workshops where I design smart speaker interactions as a lecturer.
Design Sprint is a service design framework developed by GV (formerly Google Ventures) in the United States under design thinking. It has been covered several times on this blog, so if you are interested, please click here.
Why in English?
This time, it is a collaboration between IBEC Co., Ltd., which provides English training, and Teijin Group. Both Teijin and ISAO are indebted to IBEC for their English training programs for employees.
It was originally an initiative started by three companies last year as a "cross-industry exchange meeting in English", and the management side asked us to hold a VUI workshop in English as a theme.
I participated as a student last year, and this year I felt like I was suddenly entrusted with a big role as a supporter of the lecturer.
Such sudden assignments are also common in Bari Flat ISAO!
Relationship between ISAO and English
ISAO focuses on supporting English learning in order to develop business people who can use it globally. We also hire people of all nationalities, and currently we also have German, Spanish, Indonesian, and Chinese engineers.
If you can speak English, you will not be able to get a raise, but if you do not reach a certain level in TOEIC, you will not be able to meet the salary increase conditions.
In short, you **don't get the salary you should be getting. **
It sounds harsh, but in fact, they provide a lot of loving support, providing numerous learning opportunities and bearing the costs.
This is one of the opportunities this time.
There are so many things about ISAO's English learning support that I would like to introduce one by one, but I would like to ask them to write about them separately on the blog in charge of human resource development.
Affinity between English Learning and VUI Design
This is my personal opinion, but I am convinced that English learning and VUI design go well together.
The process of thinking about a conversation with a smart speaker or voice AI assistant is because you think deeply about how to frame simple, easy-to-understand sentences and how to make the conversation with the other person smoother.
- Invocation Phrase is basically syntax
- Better simple phrases that even children can understand
- Try to say out the scenario you created, so you can practice speaking.
I myself use Amazon Echo in English, and I have also read Designing Voice User Interfaces to explore VUI in English.
What kind of workshop did you do?
The introduction has become long, but let's take a look at the workshop. After each of the 12 students introduced themselves and their businesses, Let's get started!
I gave an overview of smart speakers and voice AI assistants, and the rules for design sprints. The original material of the design sprint is in English, so I was able to do it without difficulty.
Next is Mr. Scott from Ibec. I had the materials I usually use in VUI workshops translated into English and facilitated them.
Themes
- An Alexa Skill which children would love.
(Alexa skills that kids will be hooked on) - A Google Home Application which office workers would want.
(Google Home app that you want to put somewhere in your office)
Each team chooses one of the themes and roughly follows the process.
Narrow down the idea ⇒ to one project⇒ design dialogue⇒ finish dialogue⇒ user testing
I worked for a total of about 5 hours under the strict Japanese prohibition rule.
It is a workshop where you use your brain even in your native Japanese, but of course it is difficult in English! Everyone was able to do individual work to expand ideas while holding their heads, and to exchange opinions in English for group work to narrow down ideas. Great!
Personally, the idea I found the most interesting was "Alexa skill that tells you how your mother is in a good mood".
From the conversation between the mother and Alexa, the child can tell you how the mother is doing today.
It may be realized in the near future! ?
Finally, a group photo.
At the social gathering held at ISAO Kitchen after this, everyone was immersed in English for a day, so there were scenes where their heads and conversations were mixed up in English and Japanese. We had a good exchange!
Conclusion
After finishing the day, VUI is still interesting! I felt that there was one way to achieve "learning English" and "learning English" at the same time.
If you are interested in a design sprint workshop, please contact us at any time.
The VUI experience workshop in Japanese will be held next time on 11/14 (Wed.)! For more information, please visit the connpass event page.
Thank you for reading to the end!