speech – Cheryl Platz

Echo Look (Product and VUI Design)

Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Information Architecture, Leadership, Multimodal Interfaces, Prototyping + Development, Research, Touch & Tablet UI, UX and Product Design, Voice Interfaces

I was hired to help a fledgling product team transform their initial concept lab pitch into a production-worthy multimodal design for an entirely new hardware product category at Amazon. Problem statement How might we create a completely new experience that helps customers manage their wardrobes, combining natural user interfaces with traditional user interfaces and Amazon shopping technology? At the time I was hired, a concept lab team had identified a product opportunity combining fashion with natural user interfaces, and had received funding for a small pod of full time employees to work on the concept as a secretive, "tented" project team.…

Alexa Notifications and Interruption Model

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

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 product has been invited into homes, and we did not want to violate that trust. Further complicating matters was the as-then-unannounced Echo Show, which completely changed the interaction paradigm. While Echo had not supported large-scale multitasking, the Echo Show introduced the concept of navigation and a sort of back stack.…

Windows Automotive Notifications

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

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 designed, tested and implemented a notifications system that optimized for drive-related, time-sensitive notifications where a simple binary action can be taken in the vehicle. Logistics Work on the Windows Automotive design team was broken into 2-week Agile sprints: each sprint was either Design/Exploration, Prototyping, Research, or Final Design Delivery. Phases…

Cortana in the Car: VUI for Windows Automotive

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

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 Program Managers / 2 Researchers Process Our early process focused on developing a push-to-talk experience that provided guidance to users without overwhelming. Careful attention was paid to multimodality, error handling, and the interaction between the VUI and GUI. I drove hands-on deep dives (in partnership with the lead Speech program…

Disney Friends for the Nintendo DS

Consumer Products, Conversational UI, Game Design, Information Architecture, Leadership, Management, Multimodal Interfaces, Research, UX and Product Design, Video Games, Voice Interfaces

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 that performed well, integrated seamlessly with gameplay goals, and could ship simultaneously in at least 6 languages. Project Summary I served as the Lead Producer on Disney Friends DS, from initial pitch to final gold master build. I led a 15-person team of artists, developers and game designers with a…