Translated from 日本語 • View original Hello, this is Aimi Nakajima.
The Alexa skill designed and developed by ISAO has been released!
As I mentioned in this blog the other day, this development was decided after the VUI Design Sprint Workshop, and we are finally able to unveil it to you recently!
VUI Design Sprint Workshop Example: Orbis Corporation
Alexa Skill Overview
The Alexa skill "ORBIS 'Today's Moisture'" released this time is provided as part of the retention program of ORBIS DEFENCERA, a food for specified health uses, which was confirmed to have the function of "making it difficult for the skin to escape moisture" released by Orbis on January 1st.
Activate "Orbis Moisture Today" in the Alexa Skill Store and say "Alexa, open Moisture Today" to the supported device.
What is ORBIS DEFENCERA?
Haruma Miura and Eimi Kuroda's TV commercial is a hot topic in "ORBIS DEFENCERA".
It is a food for specified health use (Tokuho) that has been confirmed to "make it difficult for the skin to lose moisture", and is also attracting attention as an inner skin care product that can be taken care of anywhere and at any time.
From Zero Planning to Development
In this blog, I would like to talk about what kind of design and development process we went through after the design sprint and released it.
The design sprint was conducted by three teams, and thanks to everyone's hard work, we were able to create three prototypes that would work on the actual Amazon Echo in one day. By the way, the three teams came up with completely different ideas, and the result was very interesting.
- Skills that teach you what to do when your makeup fails
- Skills that allow Orbis store clerks to check inventory
One of the teams' idea, "A skill that prevents you from forgetting to take Orbis Defensera," was liked by Orbis within the company, and a few days after the workshop ended, we received a consultation on the development of this book.
The Defender will be released on January 1st and the TV commercial will be played on January 19th, so the project started at a rapid pace to match the timing!
Difference Between Prototype and Actual Development
Although we had a prototype (something that runs on the actual Amazon Echo) when this development was decided, the prototype was not enough to make something for the end user.
There are a number of tools that allow you to create Alexa skills non-coding even if you are not an engineer. If it's simple, you can make it in 5 or 10 minutes, which is very convenient.
Concept verification is sufficient, but when it comes to a richer user experience, the story is different.
For example, conditional branching. If Alexa says "Good morning" in the morning, "Hello" at noon, and "Good evening" at night, it cannot be handled with non-programming tools because the conditions are set by programming.
In addition, a database is needed to keep a record of each user's drinking, and a function called "reminder" is used to prevent forgetting to drink, but these are also areas where engineers are needed.
User testing to identify phrases and unexpected
Before development, make a list of as many utterances as possible that users are likely to say during the VUI design process.
For example, in response to Alexa's question, "Do you have a Defender?", some people will answer "I have" or "Yes" to convey their intention to have it (called an intent), while others will answer "Yes".
Or some people may answer "I got it".
One of the VUI designers' jobs is to think of as many variations as possible, but the most powerful thing is to let "people who don't know anything" speak naturally.
Therefore, I think the user testing process is very important. Once we had something that worked to some extent, we had the cooperation of several people outside of this project from Orbis and used it as ordinary people.
After the observations from this test, the next day I can add variations to the skills under development and review the flow.
For example, there were people who said "I want to change the time" in addition to "reminders", "notifications", and "notifications" that were prepared in advance as paraphrases for "reminders", and we were able to reflect this in the skills we were developing.
When you turn on the reminder feature, you will receive notifications from Alexa.
Is the skill name easy to say or remember?
In the same user test, we also check whether the call name of the skill is easy to say or remember.
At first, a completely different skill name was a strong candidate, but there were several voices saying that they felt uncomfortable during the test process or that it was difficult to understand, and after considering it, it was decided to be "Today's Moisture".
By the way, the name displayed in the skill store and the call name do not have to be the same.
Skill Name: Orbis' "Today's Moisture" Calling Name: Open Today's Moisture (Activate/Start)
Enabling Human Engagement
One of the things we want to achieve with ORBIS' "Today's Moisture" is that Alexa delivers messages of support and tips on skin and beauty as partners who aim to moisturize their skin together. So, instead of talking to the system, I focused on expressing a more human warmth.
For example, name calling. Every time you activate a skill, the dialogue begins with "Hello (varies depending on the time of day), Mr. ○○."
This uses the name access of the Amazon account, but the impression changes quite a bit without this.
Name information is not kept in the database, that is, it does not constitute personal information acquisition, so we recommend that you leave access rights ON.
In addition, Alexa's reaction immediately after the user utters a word is also added to the variation that a human would say, such as "Oh" or "That's right".
In addition, Alexa's accent will be adjusted to be as natural as possible using SSML, a text-to-speech markup language.
Submission and Release
And at the end of January, it was successfully released to the Skill Store! In fact, Amazon has rejected the application three times.
Fortunately, there were no bugs, and most of the wording in the skill and skill store was adjusted, such as the need for cautionary wording by using the name and reminder access.
The points pointed out are completely different depending on the content of the skill, so I learn every time.
Also, I can clearly see that the Alexa skill review team is testing it by hand.
By the way, the response is quite different depending on which country you release it in, and Amazon in Japan basically gives feedback on the next business day, so I am very grateful.
Finally
Thanks to you, we have received multiple inquiries about smart speaker skill development.
If you have time and budget, I recommend the flow of VUI design sprint ⇒ skill development like Orbis.
If you are interested or a company, please contact us at any time.
Thank you for reading to the end!