Multimodal Alexa Interface

Overview

Client in real estate industry
Alexa Skill design for Amazon Echo Show
Create a white labeled template design
Design visually engaging multimodal interfaces
Frequent feedback sessions with client team
Short turn around time

Outcomes

Provided client with a scalable template
Iteration-refined design delivered in just a week
Designs were delivered with ease of development in mind, enabling swift production turnaround

Context – Targeted Scope, Tight Timeline, Creative Freedom

A client in the real estate industry wanted to evolve their offerings by creating an interactive, multimodal house searching tool on the Amazon Echo Show that they could provide to their customer base of agencies.

They had an in-house development team that had already built functionality of the Alexa skill, but they needed help improving the design of it. It was meant to be a white labeled product, so the screen layouts needed to be templated in a way that certain areas allowed room for customer logos, names, and contact information. The client had a tight timeline of only a week, but were excited to allow ample creative freedom.

Goal – Provide a White-Labeled Glow-up

Deliver a set of screens to pair with touch and voice commands for a house searching skill on the Alexa. The designs needed to look slick being easy to read from a distance, optimized for the Amazon Echo Show, and templated to suit the clients’ white labeling needs.

Scope and Activities

Researched and learned best design practices a new device
Optimized visual design for an unfamiliar device interface
Iterative design team collaboration
Ensured the interfaces had engaging visual design with ample real estate eye candy
Templated the layout of each screen with key white label components for the client to reuse with their own customers
Delivered a set of interfaces designed with both touch and voice interactions in mind

Conclusion – Short and Sweet Design, Swift Development

After several rounds of swift design iterations guided by the client’s feedback, they were thrilled with the final delivery. The flow of screens functioned smoothly, looked clean, and were easy for the developers to implement quickly.

Key lessons learned and experience gained include:

It was fun and interesting learning about a new device and the best practices involved when designing for it
There is an important balance to strike when you’re given creative freedom, to allow yourself to try a range of ideas and directions, while still making sure to progress and not get stuck designing in circles