Announcements | Mysite

Alexa Announcements

Problem

Families often need to communicate something to the entire household quickly (e.g. Dinner is ready).

Insight

Customers currently solve this problem by yelling. Any new Alexa feature aiming to solve this problem would need to be more effective and as fast and simple as yelling.

Inspiration

In the 1960s and 1970s home intercom systems were very popular and made it easy to communicate from room to room in a home.

Solution

Alexa Announcements allows customers to use their Alexa devices throughout the home as an intercom system.

Process

First, we reviewed the PRFAQ document prepared by the Product Manager to get a better understanding of the requirements.

Then I sketched out several options of the design of the screen and partnered with the VUI designer assigned to the project to refine the proposal.

Design options were shared with the product and engineering teams to align on the VUI and GUI designs.

Designs were then reviewed with the Alexa Communications leadership team as well as the Echo Show platform team for approval.

After making a few improvements based on feedback from the Beta launch Announcements shipped to customers in 2018 available on Echo, Echo Show and Fire TV devices.

We then extended the feature to make it available through the Alexa app, on Kids tablets and other Alexa-enabled devices (e.g. Ecobee thermostats).

My Role: I was the UX Design lead for Alexa Announcements. I partnered with a VUI designer, Principal Designer and Product Manager to ship this new Alexa feature to customers in 2018. I continued to work on iterations to Announcements over the years and later handed off future improvements to one of my direct reports.

Stakeholders: Director of Alexa Communications, Alexa Platform Design Team, the Product Manager for Announcements

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Solution

Results

Announcements shipped to the public early in 2018 and is now one of our core Alexa Communications experiences with millions of active users each month. Customers use Announcements to keep their family on track, transition them to the next thing and get their attention when they don’t respond to phone calls or text messages.

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6 years later Announcements continues to be one of the most popular and loved Alexa experiences with continued year over year growth in customers.

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Announcements enabled other teams to ship features like Ring Doorbell Alerts and Calendar Reminders using our back end system and templates.