UX and Product Design – Page 2

Conversational UI, Game Design, Leadership, Management, Multimodal Interfaces, Research, Touch & Tablet UI, UX and Product Design, Video Games, Voice Interfaces

Disney Friends DS

As Lead Producer on Disney Friends, I owned the vision and delivery of an ambitious new game that blended four unique cinematic universes with a single, cohesive gameplay mechanic. We became one of the first Nintendo DS titles to incorporate speech recognition, but had to do so in a way…

Ecommerce, Enterprise Experiences, UX and Product Design

Marketplace Landing Pages

In early 2017, analysis of the AppSource.com telemetry revealed a potentially significant problem with the landing experience on AppSource.com, which was launched prior to my time partnering with the team. In partnership with our marketing and merchandising product managers, I worked to help both the AppSource and Azure Marketplace teams…

Chatbots, Cloud Services, Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Cross-Channel Experiences, Information Architecture, Leadership, Multimodal Interfaces, Service Design, Touch & Tablet UI, UX and Product Design, Voice Interfaces

Alexa Notifications and Interruption Model

Upon joining the central Alexa Voice Design team in late 2015, my first order of business was to tackle a complicated systems design problem: how could we adapt a primarily single-threaded, voice-forward, reactive experience to allow proactive notifications? There was a great deal of caution surrounding the effort, as our…

Cloud Services, Ecommerce, Enterprise Experiences, UX and Product Design

Azure Marketplace 2.0

In the fall of 2016, my responsibilities as the Azure Framework Design Lead expanded to include direct responsibility for our pro developer marketplaces. When we began, the only active marketplace in our purview was AppSource.com, but there was an immediate need to take the lessons learned on AppSource and apply…

Cloud Services, Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Cross-Channel Experiences, Multimodal Interfaces, Touch & Tablet UI, UX and Product Design, Voice Interfaces

Alexa: Do Not Disturb

In parallel with our efforts on Alexa Notifications, I was asked to drive the completion of the Do Not Disturb feature. DND applied not just to Notifications but to Communications (calls/messaging), which meant a separate team of stakeholders and faster deadlines than the longer-term Notifications project. As with Alexa Notifications,…

Cloud Services, Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Leadership, Prototyping + Development, UX and Product Design, Voice Interfaces

Alexa Skill: Trainer Tips

When I joined the Alexa team, the Skills store was still in its infancy. One of my first responsibilities on the team was to perform skill submission reviews, which gave me a unique perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the early Skills platform. Still, I wanted to learn more…

Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Multimodal Interfaces, Touch & Tablet UI, UX and Product Design, Voice Interfaces

Windows Automotive Notifications

Many of our in-vehicle apps needed to provide information to the driver, and expected the same interruption models they enjoy on mobile phones. However, in an automotive environment, interruptions threaten the driver’s safety. Our solutions had to work in a multimodal environment, with potential touch, voice or hardware input. We…

Cloud Services, Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Management, Multimodal Interfaces, Touch & Tablet UI, UX and Product Design, Voice Interfaces

Cortana in the Car: VUI for Windows Automotive

Design a new voice user interface (VUI) for use in the car that passes all automotive industry distracted driving safety standards. In addition, guide all 5 major feature teams on the appropriate use of speech within their areas (Start, Navigation, Media, Communications, and Car) CONTRIBUTORS: Myself (design owner) / 2…

Enterprise Experiences, Information Architecture, UX and Product Design

SCCM 2012: Information Architecture

My time on System Center Configuration Manager 2012 spanned four years of design and hundreds of UI surfaces. Perhaps our most important task was redefining the information architecture of the product - and to do so, we had to drive years of detailed user research and iterative design experimentation. Problem…

Enterprise Experiences, Information Architecture, UX and Product Design

System Center “Concept Car” 2010

In 2010, we set out to explore a unified approach to the most complex IT processes - software deployment and incident management in large networks. From initial scenarios and paper sketches to high-fidelity prototypes, videos, and user testing, we used this "concept car" as a vehicle for exploring the impact of…