VUX World

Today, we’re following the story of the inspirational Bob Stolzberg of VoiceXP, and giving you some deep insights into how you can turn Alexa for Business into a business.In this episode, Dustin and I are getting into the detail of how VoiceXP came to be, how Bob almost made $14,500 profit from his first Alexa Skill, why voice is such a big opportunity and how he turned Alexa for Business into a business.We’re also discussing the features that come with Amazon Alexa for Business and some example use cases taken from Bob’s experience, as well as plenty of other areas such as:Selling to corporate clientsThe difference between a skill builder and a businessThe risk of using amazon alexa in businessSecurity concerns and DR complianceThe risks that corporate clients face and mitigationsThe importance of being a Amazon partnerPrivate vs public skillsLocking down devicesUse cases and future use casesReporting and analyticsAgnostic roadmapsThe hard work required to start a startupOur GuestAfter spending 20 years working in the enterprise IT field, Bob Stolzberg founded VoiceXP, the voice first company that helps businesses create efficiencies and increase productivity through voice. Bob and his team work with enterprise clients and SMEs to implement Alexa for Business within organisations. From designing and building specific skills for clients, to the full implementation of the devices and platform.Bob’s experience of the enterprise IT environment gives him a unique understanding of the corporate IT world, the kind of people that make purchasing decisions and the kind of risks or concerns IT professionals will perceive with new technology platforms such as this. He’s managed to overcome those concerns, mitigate those risks and build a thriving business that’s just joined one of the top startup accelerators in the US, Capital Innovators.Bob’s an immensely engaging and passionate guy, and offers some amazing guidance and pointers for anyone looking to turn voice into a business. This is a truly inspirational listen.LinksVisit the VoiceXP websiteFollow Bob on TwitterListen to the VoiceFirst.FM podcast featuring BobCheck out Dustin's book: Voice applications for Alexa and Google Assistant Where to listeniTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyStitcherTuneIniHeartRadioPippaAny other podcast player you use or ask Any Pod to play V.U.X. World on Alexa Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we’re discussing the findings of Martin Porcheron’s study, ‘Voice interfaces in everyday life’. We uncover insights into how people actually use Amazon Alexa in the home. We find unique user behaviour, new technology challenges and understand what it all means for voice UX designers, developers and brands.Voice interfaces in everyday lifeImagine if you could eaves drop into someone's house and listen to how they interact with their Amazon Echo. Imagine, whenever someone said “Alexa”, you were there. Imagine being able to hear everything thing that was said for an entire minute before the word “Alexa” was uttered, and then stick around for a whole 60 seconds after the interaction with Alexa was over.Well, that’s exactly what today’s guest and his associates did, and his findings offer some unique lessons for VUX designers, developers and brands that’ll help you create more natural voice user experiences that work.In this episode, we’re discussing:How people use digital assistants in publicThe background of Voice interfaces in everyday lifeThe challenge of what you call your Alexa skillThe issue of recallHow Amazon can improve skill usageThe inherent problem of discoverability in voiceHow Echo use is finely integrated into other activitiesThe implications of treating an Echo as a single user deviceThe challenge of speech recognition in the ‘hurly burly’ of moderns lifeHow people collaboratively attempt to solve interaction problemsWhat is ‘political’ control and how does it apply to voice first devices?Pranking people’s Alexa and the effect on future Amazon advertisingDesigning for device controlWhy these devices aren’t actually conversationalThe importance of responsesKey takeaways for designers and developersGive your skill a name that’s easy for recallMake your responses succinct, fit within a busy and crowded environmentMake sure your responses are a resource for further action - how will the user do the next thing?Consider designing for multiple usersDon’t use long intros and tutorials, get straight to the pointDon’t design for a conversation, design to get things doneOur GuestMartin Porcheron is a Research Associate in the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham and has a PhD in Ubiquitous Computing, a sub-set of Computer Science. Martin has conducted several studies in the field of human-computer interaction, including looking at how people make use of mobile phones in conversations i.e. how people use something like Siri mid-conversation and how those interactions unfold.Martin’s angle isn’t to look at these things as critical or problematic, but to approach them as an opportunity to learn about how people make use of technology currently. He believe this enables us to make more informed design decisions.The study we discuss today has won many plaudits including Best Paper Award at the CHI 2018 conference.LinksRead the Voice interfaces in everyday life studyFollow Martin on TwitterRead Martin's blog post on the studyRead Martin's colleague, Stuart Reeves' post on the study on MediumVisit Martin's websiteWhere you can listen:iTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyStitcherTuneIniHeartRadioPippaAny other podcast player you use or ask Any Pod to play V.U.X. World on Alexa Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we're getting deep into the biggest challenges facing designers and developers on the Alexa platform: being discovered and making money. And who better to take us through it, than one of the most experienced developers on the voice scene, Jo 'the Oracle' Jaquinta.Speak to anyone who's serious about voice first development and they'll tell you the two biggest challenges facing the voice first world right now are skill discoverability and monetisation. Vasili Shynkarenka of Storyline mentioned it and so did Matt Hartman of Betaworks when they featured on the VUX World podcast previously.However, we rarely hear stories from people who've tried everything they can to overcome these challenges. Until now.In this episode, we're joined by Dustin Coates as co-host and we're speaking to Jo about his vast experience of designing and developing on the Amazon Alexa platform and how he's approached tackling those two big challenges.We also discuss voice UX design techniques that Jo's picked up along the way, as well as the tools and techniques he uses for developing skills.This one is jam-packed with epic insights from someone who few know more than in this space right now, and includes discussion on a vast array of subjects including:Discoverability:The impact of advertising on increasing skill adoptionThe effect of being featured in the Amazon Alexa newsletterWhat Amazon can do to help skill discoveryHow transferring between modalities can loose usersMonetisation:The challenges of turning skill development into a businessThe difference between Google’s and Amazon’s strategyThe two ways to make money from voice: the easy way and the hard wayWhy a monetisation API shouldn't be the focus for developersWhy Amazon Alexa developer payouts are bad for the voice environmentDesign:The challenges of designing for voice with a screenHow immersive audio games help the visually impairedHow Amazon could improve the UX for users by moving to a 'streaming' approach to voiceWhy you shouldn’t be aiming for a ‘conversational’ experienceWhat is the method of Loci and how can it be used when designing for voice?Development:Fuzzy matchingBuilding and maintaining your own library and SDKCross platform developmentOther gems include:Structural problems with the Alexa platformHow company culture affects voice strategyWhy it’s not early days in voiceAlexa for business and privacyOur GuestJo Jaquinta is a software developer with over 20 years' experience. Jo started building skills on the Alexa platform a short time after it was released, has created a host of interesting skills and learned plenty along the way through pulling Alexa in all kinds of different directions. His knowledge, experience and plenty of lessons learned were all applied in building Jo's most recent skill, the madly complex, 6 Swords.Jo shares plenty of his voice design and development knowledge on his YouTube channel, which is full of engaging and interesting insights, and has put pen to paper to share his knowledge in the shape of two books on Alexa: How to Program Amazon Echo and Developing Amazon Alexa Games. He's also active on the Alexa Slack channel, helping people solve their development problems and consulting on voice design and development.What Jo doesn't know about developing on Alexa isn't worth knowing. His immense knowledge and vast experience in this area are pretty much unrivalled, which is why I refer to him as 'the Oracle'.LinksFind Jo on the Alexa Slack channelListen to the Voicebot.ai episode featuring JoFind out more about Tsa Tsa TzuCheck out 6 SwordsWatch Jo's videos on YouTubeYouTube: making money on Alexa, the easy way and the hard wayRead Jo's books: How to Program Amazon Echo and Developing Amazon Alexa GamesWhere to Listen:iTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyTuneIniHeartRadioStitcher Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we’re getting into detail about what it’s like to be a full-time VUI designer. We’re discussing the details of the role, the day to day duties and the skillsets that are important to succeed in designing voice user interfaces.The role of a VUI designer has been around for a while, but it’s not so common. However, with the rise of voice as an access point for controlling technology, this is one of the roles of the future.If you’re planning for that future and are considering seeking work in the voice first space; or if you’re a voice first design hobbyist looking to take it full-time; or if you’re generally interested in what it takes to create conversational interfaces, then this is a great episode for you.We’re joined by two professional VUI designers, Ilana Shalowitz and Brian Bauman of Emmi, and together they’ll be taking us through the ins and outs of the role that designs voice user interfaces for Emmi’s care calls.In this episodeIlana takes us through an overview of the VUI designer role and discusses what skillsets are important. She takes us through the interview process, bedding in, and drops some detailed knowledge voice user interface design based on her years of experience in the field.Brian then takes us through the role in more detail and looks at the specifics of the role, where a VUI designer fits into a project, what the day to day activities and duties are, and what he found during his first 30 days.We also discuss things like:How to pronounce VUI (V.U.I. or "Vooey")The difference between chat bot design and conversational vuiWhat is prosity and why is it importantLanguageBreathingError recoveryDirecting voice talentReporting and measuring successBroader voice user interface design tipsOur guestsIlana Shalowitz is the VUI Design Manager at Emmi and has a background in marketing and design. Ilana is forming a great reputation in the voice first space and is quickly becoming a leading voice for voice in the healthcare sector. She featured at the Alexa Conference 2018, spoke at the AI Summit 2018, has featured on the VoiceFirst.FM Voice of Healthcare podcast (Episode 5) and is a keynotes speaker at the Voice of Healthcare Summit in August in Boston.Brian Bauman is a former playwright and joined Emmi recently, taking on his first role as a VUI designer. Brian has a background in the creative arts and is a former playwright. He fills us in on what his first month as a VUI designer was like and how his creative background gave him some valuable transferable skills.About EmmiEmmi solutions is part of the Wolters Kluwer stable and helps care organisations extend the reach of their care through using technology.Ilana and Brian both wore on the automated voice-based outbound calls side of the company. They create call scripts and dialogue flows that are turned into real calls that patients receive and can interact with in conversation. This means that healthcare providers can speak to thousands of patients without needing make make any manual calls at all.LinksApply to be a VUI designer at EmmiJoin the VUI designer slack channelFind out more about EmmiRegister at the Voice of Healthcare Summit 2018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re talking to ex-Googlers, Konstantin Samoylov and Adam Banks, about their findings from conducting research on voice assistants at Google and their approach to building world-leading UX labs.This episode is a whirlwind of insights, practical advice and engaging anecdotes that cover the width and breadth of user research and user behaviour in the voice first and voice assistant space. It’s littered with examples of user behaviour found when researching voice at Google and peppered with guidance on how to create world-class user research spaces.Some of the things we discuss include:Findings from countless voice assistant studies at GoogleReal user behaviour in the on-boarding processUser trust of voice assistantsWhat people expect from voice assistantsUser mental models when using voice assistantsThe difference between replicating your app and designing for voiceThe difference between a voice assistant and a voice interfaceThe difference between user expectations and realityHow voice assistant responses can shape people’s expectations of the full functionality of the thingWhat makes a good UX labHow to design a user research spaceHow voice will disrupt and challenge organisational structureIs there a place for advertising on voice assistants?Mistakes people make when seeking a voice presence (Hint: starting with ‘let’s create an Alexa Skill’ rather than ‘how willpeople interact with our brand via voice?’)The importance (or lack of) of speed in voice user interfaces?How to fit voice user research into a design sprintPlus, for those of you watching on YouTube, we have a tour of the UX Lab in a Box!Our GuestsKonstantin Samoylov and Adam Banks are world-leading user researchers and research lab creators, and founders of user research consultancy firm, UX Study.The duo left Google in 2016 after pioneering studies in virtual assistants and voice, as well as designing and creating over 50 user research labs across the globe, and managing the entirety of Google’s global user research spaces.While working as researchers and lab builders at Google, and showing companies their research spaces, plenty of companies used to ask Konstantin and Adam whether they can recommend a company to build them a similar lab. Upon realising that company doesn’t exist, they set about creating it!UX Study designs and builds research and design spaces for companies, provides research consultancy services and training, as well as hires and sells its signature product, UX Lab in a Box.UX Lab in a BoxThe Lab in a Box, http://ux-study.com/products/lab-in-a-box/ is an audio and video recording, mixing and broadcasting unit designed specifically to help user researchers conduct reliable, consistent and speedy studies.It converts any space into a user research lab in minutes and helps researchers focus on the most important aspect of their role - research!It was born after the duo, in true researcher style, conducted user research on user researchers and found that 30% of a researchers time is spent fiddling with cables, setting up studies, editing video and generally faffing around doing things that aren’t research!Konstantin SamoylovKonstantin Samoylov is an award-winning user researcher. He has nearly 20 years’ experience in the field and has conducted over 1000 user research studies.He was part of the team that pioneered voice at Google and was the first researcher to focus on voice dialogues and actions. By the time he left, just 2 years ago, most of the studies into user behaviour on voice assistants at Google were conducted by him.Adam BanksIt’s likely that Adam Banks has more experience in creating user research spaces than anyone else on the planet. He designed, built and managed all of Google’s user research labs globally including the newly-opened ‘Userplex’ in San Francisco.He’s created over 50 research and design spaces across the globe for Google, and also has vast experience in conducting user research himself.LinksVisit the UX Study website Follow UX Study on Twitter Check out the UX Lab in a Box Follow Kostantin on Twitter Follow Adam on Twitter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Dustin and I are joined by Matt Hartman, partner at Betaworks, curator of the Hearing Voices newsletter and creator of the Wiffy Alexa Skill.In this episode, we’re discussing:All about BetaworksA strategic vision for voiceChanging user behaviourOn-demand interfacesFriction and psychological frictionHow context influences your design interfaceThe 2 types of companies that’ll get built on voice platformsDifferences between GUI and VUI designVoice campThe Wiffy Alexa SkillLessons learned building your first Alexa SkillText message on-boardingChallenges in the voice spaceOur Guest, Matt HartmanMatt Hartman has been with Betaworks for the past 4 years and handles the investment side of the company. Matt spends his days with his ear to the ground, meeting company founders and entrepreneurs, searching for the next big investment opportunities.Paying attention to trends in user behaviour and searching for the next new wave of technology that will change the way people communicate has led Matt and Betaworks to focus on the voice space.Matt has developed immense knowledge and passion for voice and is a true visionary. He totally gets the current state of play in the voice space and is a true design thinker. He has an entirely different and unique perspective on the voice scene: the voice ecosystem, voice strategy, user behaviour trends, challenges and the future of the industry.Matt curates the Hearing Voices newsletter to share his reading with the rest of the voice space and created the Wiffy Alexa Skill, which lets you ask Alexa for the Wifi password. It’s one of the few Skills that receives the fabled Alexa Developer Reward.BetaworksBetaworks is a startup platform that builds products like bit.ly, Chartbeat and GIPHY. It invests in companies like Tumblr, Kickstarter and Medium and has recently turned its attention to audio and voice platforms such as Anchor, Breaker and Gimlet.As part of voice camp in 2017, Betaworks invested in a host of voice-first companies including Jovo, who featured on episode 5 of the VUX World podcast, as well as Spoken Layer, Shine and John Done, which conversational AI guru, Jeff Smith (episode 4), was involved in.LinksSubscribe to the Hearing Voices newsletterCheck out the Wiffy Alexa SkillFollow Matt on TwitterVisit Matt's websiteMatt's article: Interfaces on demandMatt's article: Lessons Learned Building my First Alexa SkillFollow Matt Hartman on MediumFind out more about Betaworks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we’re joined by the Mycroft AI team, and we’re getting deep into designing and developing on the open source alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.If you’ve tried creating voice apps on platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, then you’ll do doubt be familiar with their current limitations. Push notifications, monetisation and all-round flexibility generally leave plenty to be desired.What if there was an alternative? A platform that really did let you create whatever you wanted. Something that'll let you monetise. Something completely open to being used in a way that you want to use it.Well, that’s what the team at Mycroft AI have built.What is Mycroft AI?Mycroft AI is the world’s first open source voice assistant that runs anywhere. On desktop, mobile, smart speakers. In cars, fridges, and washing machines. You name it. You can put it where you like and do with it what you like as well.One member of the Mycroft community has hooked the platform up to a webcam and created a facial recognition feature that uses a persons face instead of a wake word. When you look at the camera, the speaker wakes and is ready for you to speak to it!As well as being open source and flexible, if you create something exceptional, then it could even become the default skill for that feature on the platform. That’s like you creating a really great weather skill on Alexa and Amazon using that as the default way to tell people the weather!Plus, your personal data is kept totally private.And Mycroft aren’t just creating cool software, they have a range of smart speakers as well. The Mark I speaker is on sale now and the Mark II is on Indiegogo right now.Our GuestsToday, we’re joined by Joshua Montgomery, CEO; Steve Penrod, CTO; and Derick Schweppe, CDO to talk all things Mycroft AI.We’re also joined again by co-host, Dustin Coates, and we’re getting into detail about:Where Mycroft AI came from and the company’s vision for voice and AIThe differences between Mycroft and the other players such as Alexa and Google AssistantThe value of an open source voice assistantAbout the platform (how it works, how you can get up and running)About the range of smart speakersPrivacy and securityThe Mycroft community and what people are buildingIncentives and reasons to develop on Mycroft AIDev Chops with Dustin: a new feature where Dustin gets into the dev details of the Mycroft platformVoice design techniques and processesThe future of voiceLinksVisit the Mycroft websiteGet Mycroft for developersMycroft Mark II on IndigogoBuy Mycroft Mark 1Mycroft on YoutubeMycroft on TwitterMycroft community forumMycroft chat Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

But first, let's welcome co-host; Dustin CoatesWe're joined in this episode by our new co-host, Dustin Coates. Dustin is the author of Voice Applications for Alexa and Google Assistant and has been involved in the voice scene since day 1. With extensive experience in software engineering, deep knowledge of Alexa and Google Assistant development and an immense passion for voice, Dustin brings a new perspective and different angles of questioning that, not only technical folk, but non-tech people will appreciate as well.One of the challenges with new technology platforms is that you typically need to be able to speak the lingo to develop on them. As the internet has progressed, there are what seems like a million dev languages that you'd need to be able to code in to be able to create your website or app.It wasn’t until relatively recently that tools cropped up to allow designers and total beginners to build on the web. Tools like Wordpress, Weebly and Squarespace have made it easy for anyone to create a presence online.The great thing about having that history of the web is that we can learn from the past and apply the things that work well to new industries and technology. That’s exactly what Vasili has done through the creation of Storyline. It's the Weebly of voice.It has a drag and drop interface and a user friendly workflow that will allow anyone to create an Alexa Skill without needing to code a single line.It will let more technical folk do further work if they’d like to, such as using an API integration to interrogate data, but for the less technical folk out there, what you get ‘out the box’ is more than enough to build a well-rounded Skill.In fact, testament to how much flexibility is baked into the tool is the recent announcement of the Amazon Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids winner, Kids Court, was created in Storyline.In this episode, we get into detail about:What Storyline is, how it works and how to get up and runningTesting and publishing SkillsHow to make your Skill more discoverableThe Storyline communityFuture features and the roadmapThe challenges facing developers and solutions to solving themVasili’s vision for where the voice space is headingAdvice for beginner Skill-builders and voice headsOur guestVasili Shynkarenka is the founder and CEO of Storyline. After creating and selling an agency that specialised in creating conversational experiences for brands, Vasili turned his attention to focus on Storyline.Vasili is madly passionate about voice and has immense experience in the field. He’s super-keen for all kinds of people to get involved in creating voice experiences, no matter what their skill level. His vision for the future of smart speakers and his knowledge of creating voice experiences are inspirational.This episode is packed with insights and tips and tricks to help people of all skill levels create an Alexa Skill.LinksTry Storyline Check out Storyline on YoutubeJoin the Storyline community on Facebook Read Vasili's article 'What I Learned from 5000 Reviews of Top 5 Alexa Skills' on MediumCheck out Vasili on Medium Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find out all about the Jovo framework that lets you create Alexa Skills and Google Assistant apps at the same time, using the same code!You know how you always need to write platform-specific code for everything? One lot of code for your iOS app, another load for Android and more for Windows (if you even bother). Well, the same challenges exist today when creating voice apps. Well, those challenges did exist, until Jovo came along.With the Jovo framework, you can create an Alexa Skill and a Google Assistant app all from the same lot of code. It's part of Jovo's bigger mission to enable you to create multi-modal experiences with ease and to join together the sporadic tech outlets to create a unified experience across all devices and platforms.Our GuestJan König is one of the co-founders of Jovo and we're speaking to him today about all things cross-platform voice development. We'll hear from Jan about things like:what 'multi-modal' actually meansfeatures of the Jovo frameworkthe Jovo community and Jovo Studiosthe differences between developing for Alexa and Google Assistantthe challenges of developing voice experiencesthe skills needed for building Skillsdesigner and developer relationships in the voice worldtesting voice appsJovo 1.0 and the future of Jovo andLinksFollow Jan on TwitterFollow Jovo on TwitterVisit the Jovo websiteJovo on GithubJovo Slack channelFollow Jan on Medium Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conversational AI crops up constantly in conversations about voice, but what actually is it? How the heck does it work? And how can you use it? We speak to Jeff Smith to find out.In this episode, we cover:An overview of conversational AI - what it is and how it worksThe role of voice in conversational AIHow and why brands should consider using itHow you can get started with machine learning and conversational AIChallenges and opportunities such as the state of analytics and securityAt the foot of the show, I said that this was:“One of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had in my life.”And I wasn’t lying.Getting to grips with Conversational AIIf you’re not familiar with the concepts of conversational AI, this episode will give you a great introduction.If you are familiar and work in the industry, Jeff drops some great nuggets and learnings from his extensive experience.And if you’re interested in this from a branding perspective, by the end of this episode, you’ll have a full understanding of the contexts and environments where it’s useful.Our GuestJeff Smith, author of Reactive Machine Learning Systems, has bags of experience in the area of machine learning and conversational AI. He’s built a series of AIs, including Amy and Andrew at X.ai (what a cool domain!). That’s an AI Personal Assistant that helps people schedule meetings.Jeff now works with IPsoft and manages the conversational AI team who’re building Amelia. Amelia, as you’ll find out in the show, is an extremely sophisticated AI that can perform many human tasks, increasing productivity and business efficiencies.LinksJeff's book, Reactive Machine Learning SystemsJeff's talks and content on Reactive Machine LearningFollow Jeff on TwitterIPsoft website where you can check out AmeliaFollow IPsoft on TwitterJeff's article, 'Better conversations with machines'Check out Jeff on MediumHear Donald Trump on Lyrebird Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.