CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

VUI DESIGN

The Project

My team has been assigned to develop an Alexa Skill that provides entertainment to users through an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) story. The users can choose from different genres and difficulty levels before starting the story, and Alexa will guide them through the interactive experience.

Duration: 4 weeks

Year: Fall 2022

Methods: Surveys, Research, Flow Maps, Wireframes, Prototyping

Tools: Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop

Team: Sharlene Zapanta, Raymond Hernandez, Jungwoo Park, Giselle Cruz Mendez, Janice Chen

Context

Our Alexa Skill - Choose Your Own Adventure is a perfect choice for those who are looking for a fun and interactive way to spend their leisure time. By providing users with a range of genres and difficulty levels, our Skill offers a personalized entertainment experience.

Whether you're looking for a thrilling adventure, a mysterious crime story, or a romantic tale, our Skill has got you covered. With the added convenience of voice commands, you can sit back, relax, and let Alexa guide you through an immersive storytelling experience.

The Process

Research Define Ideate Prototype Iterate

Research

Competitor Analysis

Before designing our Alexa Skill, we conducted a thorough analysis of similar existing Skills to identify potential competitors and learn from their strengths and weaknesses.

Our analysis revealed that there are several Alexa Skills that offer interactive storytelling experiences, such as "The Wayne Investigation" and "The Magic Door." However, we found that most of these Skills were limited in terms of the variety of genres and difficulty levels they offer. Additionally, some of these Skills lacked a coherent storyline or engaging characters, resulting in a less immersive experience for the user.

Key Findings & Insights

Based on these insights, we aimed to create a Skill that not only offers a wider range of genres and difficulty levels but also features a compelling storyline and characters that keep the user engaged throughout the experience.

Define

Problem Statement

While there are some Skills that offer similar features, they are often limited in terms of genres, difficulty levels, and overall storytelling quality.

Core Features

Sitemap

With these core features in mind, we conceptualized a flow map to understand how the users will expect the app to be organized.

Ideate

Low Fidelity Wireframe

My team started with building the wireframes in Adobe Illustrator. We focused on conducting screens that met the existing Amazon Alexa brand style and also met our objectives.

Onboarding

Welcome A New User Opens up Choose Your Own Adventure Skill for the First Time

Happy Path

A User Walks Through a Genre Selection

Story Line Details

A User Walks Through a Story Until the End

Onboarding

Welcome A New User Opens up Choose Your Own Adventure Skill for the First Time

Happy Path

A User Walks Through a Genre Selection

Story Line Details

A User Walks Through a Story Until the End

Test

Usability Testing

During the user testing phase, we received valuable feedback from participants regarding the interaction clarity of our Alexa Skill. One of the main issues identified was the need for clearer transitions from Alexa to story time.

Participants reported feeling confused at times, and some were unsure if the story had started or if Alexa was still giving them options to choose from. To address this issue, we explored possible solutions such as using music to set the ambiance and starting the story with a phrase like "Once upon a time."

Another issue identified was the lack of a clear notification to signify to the user that Alexa has finished reading all the available choices. We plan to explore the existing Alexa mechanics utilizing it's light or sound that is used to notify the user that Alexa has finished.

Participants also expressed a desire to know which save file corresponds to which story or game progress. We are considering including save file names along with the time that they were last used to address this issue.

Iterate

Design Changes

With the changes made from the feedback we received, we created the high-fidelity wireframes, I created the visual assets for the genre and difficulty level screens and as a team we curated the rest of the screens.

I made use of Gestalt's Principles, color theory, and grids to ensure consistency within the entire app.

Final Product