VUX World

Diving deep into the usage of smart speakers in-store, finding out how a voice assistant is helping with product selection and driving sales, with The Mars Agency's Bree Glaeser and Brooke Hawkins.If you've had your ear to the ground, you might have come across this example of how voice is being used to help people shop for whisky in-store. It's called SmartAisle. It's an interactive voice assistant that takes away the paradox of choice by guiding users through a conversation to find the right whiskey for them.It's a sterling example of how voice could and should be applied in-store and is proving to increase sasles.Today, we're speaking to the team that designed it to find out about:The opportunities of voice in-storeHow it's driving salesDesign considerations for designing in-store voice assistantsTechnical challengesThe future of voice shoppingEarn monthly recurring revenue from your skills/actionsIf you build skills/actions for clients, then you can earn money from them each month through Speebly.Speebly let's your client's skill/action be accessed and interacted with via your client's website.Sign up your client to Speebly and you'll get a share of the monthly subscription fee.Plus, if you've already built the skill/action, it'll take you 5 minutes to set up.Find out moreWhere to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioAbout Bree GlaeserBree is an innovation strategist, currently focused on helping brands prepare for a voice-first world. Bree leads the voice practice at The Mars Agency, and is a core member of the team responsible for dreaming up and bringing to life the first-of-its-kind voice assistant at brick and mortar retail, SmartAisle (SM).Bree got into the voice and conversational commerce space via a background in design thinking and innovation. She has acted as a coach/industry expert supporting the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Program and other innovation groups in the Bay Area, to help students and professionals identify insights and ideate consumer/user-driven solutions.About Brooke HawkinsBrooke started her career in voice designing interactive phone calls and voice assistants for healthcare. Since then, she’s helped co-write the Intro to VUI course at CareerFoundry, designed chatbots for Fortune 500 clients at Nuance, and now works with The Mars Agency designing voice shopping experiences for brands. When she’s not designing for brands, Brooke writes about the burgeoning field of voice ethics, and is always thinking about the new ways voice interfaces are changing our lives for better or worse.About The Mars AgencyThe Mars Agency is a global marketing practice, specializing in marketing to shoppers, consumers and retailers across the ever-expanding omnicommerce environment. Mars uniquely refers to this environment as the A-to-V Commerce space, which incorporates everything from Autonomous to Voice commerce.Mars, proud of its independence and growth-for-clients focus, operates internationally across the Americas, Europe and Asia through its network of 13 offices.LinksVisit The Mars Agency websiteConnect with Bree on LinkedInConnect with Brooke on LinkedInFollow Brooke on TwitterRead more about Smart Aisle from the Marketing Dive Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're getting deep into using voice to enhance the gaming experience, with Anything World founder, Gordon Midwood. Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioLinksWebsite: https://anything.world/Insta: https://www.instagram.com/anything.world.worldwideTwitter: https://twitter.com/_AnythingWorldFB: https://www.facebook.com/Anything.World.Worldwide/iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speak-to-anything/id1395178504Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.differentcloth.speaktoanything Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we celebrate 1 year of VUX World, we wanted to say thank you, each and every one of you, for listening week in week out and for being a part of this journey. Here's to the next 100! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the creation of the world's first voice-first interactive documentary: Hidden Cities Berlin for Google Assistant. The action is part of a collaboration between Google and the Financial Times and was created by Rosina Sound and Reduced Listening.We're joined by the people behind the action, founder of Ronsina sound, Nicky Birch; interactive and immersive producer and BAFTA-winner, Michelle Feuerlicht; and audio software engineer, programmer, two-time BAFTA winner and all-round audio veteran, Nigel James Brown.Together, the dream team take us through the creation process of Hidden Cities Berlin. We discuss the brief, the ideation and creation process, the design considerations and the technical build.In this podcast, you'll learn about:Considerations for creating long-form, rich interactive audio contentThe challenges of creating interactive narrative as opposed to linear narrativeStorytelling with empathyDocumenting design and the 'pearl necklace' approachWhy you should consider having two narratorsWhen to give users a choice and whyClustering intents around one areaSome limitations of Dialogue Flow when working with audioHow to start with an Alpha and what to includePersonalising experiences based on previous session behaviourAnd much more (obviously)Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioLinksVisit the Rosina Sound websiteContact Nicky: nicky@rosina.ioSay 'Hey Google, speak to Hidden Cities Berlin'  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're chatting to the ex-Lego frontier-seeking, Vixen Labs-venturing, Voice2 fire-starting, voice-first-feasting James Poulter about how brands can, could and should approach voice.As the ex-Head of Emerging Platforms at Lego Group, James led Lego through their first foray into voice with the creation and launch of the Lego Duplo experience on Alexa.He also founded the Voice2 What's App community group with Will Harvey, which is now one of the most active online voice communities. (It's where we spend a good chunk of our time.)James is currently CEO at Vixen Labs, a company he co-founded with CCO, Jen Heape, that offers consultancy services to global brands, helping them navigate the unchartered waters of voice.Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioLinksJoin the Voice2 communityCheck out Vixen LabsFind out more about the Voice Summit 2019Try the Lego Duplo skill Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_M0yaIYo3Ag Here's a full blueprint for a voice design workshop. It shows you, from beginning to end, the process to go through to design world class Alexa skills.If you're an agency trying to help brands build Alexa skills or voice apps, you can use this template to go through the VUX design process.If you're a brand, you can use this to do the same with your teams. Or if you're a hobbyist, you can use this to ideate and prototype in order to get to a valid use case.For the full transcript:https://vux.world/voice-design-worksh... Podcasts referenced in this video:VUI design best practice from testing voice apps with over 120 brands, with PulseLabs: https://vux.world/voice-product-strat... Voice strategy with Ben Sauer: https://vux.world/voice-product-strat... Tools mentioned in this video:BotMock: https://botmock.com/vuxworld/ (for a free trial)VoiceApps: http://voiceapps.com Xtensio: https://xtensio.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Dustin and I are joined by Tellables co-founder, Amy Stapleton, to discuss storytelling through Alexa and the design challenges that come with that.By the end of this podcast, you'll:Be familiar with situational designGain insight into designing with Amazon PollyLearn about complex interaction modelsSee how you can use metaphors to helps users navigate (in this case, a box of chocolates)Understand how to build your own voice CMS and moreAbout Amy and TellablesAfter spending many years in IT, including 14 years at NASA as an IT manager, Amy Stapleton is driving the voice first revolution forward. Tellables build conversational story experiences for talking devices and provide a platform to showcase the work of talented authors within voice apps.Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioLinksVisit the Tellables websiteFollow Tellables on TwitterFollow Amy on TwitterEnable My Box of ChocolatesView the My Box of Chocolates list of candiesEnable the Tricky Genie skillCheck out the Pepper robotFind out more about AirtablePaul Cutsinger on situational design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we're discussing why you should separate voice app content from your code and logic with Jargon founders, Milkana Brace (CEO) and Jonathan Burstein (CTO).Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioJargonSeparating content from code is a practice that not only makes it easier to manage your VUX in general, but also paves the way for internationalising your Alexa Skill or Google Assisntant Action for other countries. Jargon's SDK does the former (separating code from content) and their transcreation services do the latter (internationalise your skill or action for other languages.Internationalising Alexa Skills and Google Assistant Actions: the land grabThis January, Google announced that Google Assistant will be available on over 1 billion devices. Amazon report to have now sold over 100 million Echo devices. Yet, 90% of all smart speaker activity is conducted in English. That's despite Alexa having a decent presence across Europe, Asia and South America, and Google Assistant being available globally.Jargon's theory: not enough people are internationalising their Alexa Skills or Google Assistant Actions. And, because there isn't as many Skills and Actions in other languages, the prizes available for those who do transcreate their VUX are there for the taking.In this episode, we take a deep dive into both and explain the benefits of managing content independently from code, as well as discuss the land grab available right now if you internationalise your Skill or Action. Oh, and how to do it!LinksVisit jargon.comRead Jargon's posts on MediumFollow @jargonjourney on TwitterFollow Jargon on LinkedInCheck out @jargonjourney on InstagramDownload the Jargon SDK:https://www.npmjs.com/package/@jargon/alexa-skill-sdkhttps://www.npmjs.com/package/@jargon/jovo-pluginhttps://www.npmjs.com/package/@jargon/actions-on-googleCheck out the Dabble Labs videos on YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the first episode of 2019, Dustin and I chat to long time fan of the show, hardcore Wu-Tang fan and resident UX research expert at AnswerLab, Chris Geison, about the ins and outs of UX research for voice.As Principle UX Researcher at AnswerLab, Chris and his colleagues work with Fortune 100 companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook, specialising in helping them learn how people use technology so that they can design the right product for the right use case.Chris joins us today to share some of the research that AnswerLab have conducted on user behaviour and voice, as well as talk us through the different types of UX research he uses, what each type is good for and how you can conduct user research for voice yourself.This episode builds on concepts we've discussed previously with Ben Sauer (voice first product strategy), Konstantin Samoylov and Adam Banks (voice first user research), and Sam Howard (voice first user testing).Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioLinksFollow Chris on TwitterConnect with Chris on LinkedInFollow AnswerLab on TwitterVisit the AnswerLab websiteThe state of smart speakers (research by AnswerLab)AnswerLab insightsJust enough research by Erika HallInterviewing users by Steve Portigal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merry Christmas VUX World fans, today we're diving deep into dialogue design and discussing some of the nuances and details you need to think about to craft compelling and frictionless dialogue in your voice experiences, with Rebecca Evanhoe.We're also taking a look back through 2018 and discussing our favourite events, skills, actions and devices, as well as looking forward to what's in store for 2019.Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioLinksFollow Rebecca on TwitterConnect with Rebecca on LinkedInBuy Erika Hall's book on Conversation DesignMusic credit: Have Yourself a Merry Funky Christmas by DKSTR Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.