V.u.x. World

This week, we take a deep dive into voice first social networks and messaging, as we explore whether these platforms are poised for success or doomed to fail. We also discuss some of the challenges in building a voice first product, including the limitations of the tech stack and how VUI design is a way of compensating for this.To take us through the world of voice first social, we're joined by Daniel Gonzalez, co-founder of voice first messaging platform, SoundBite.Where to listenApple podcastsSpotifyYouTubeCastBoxSpreakerTuneInBreakerStitcherPlayerFMiHeartRadioIn this episode, we discuss:The current state of play in social voice, how most voice first social platforms are using an old social media model and how SoundBite differs.Design challenges in designing social voice platforms, multi modal implications and perfecting a narrow use-case.Details of the inherent technology challenges built into today's voice assistants and how to compensate for it with VUI design.The future of the voice assistant technology

Voice first technology has the potential to transform organisations. Join Dustin and I as we dig into how voice is being used to create efficiencies within businesses with Silver founder, Shawn Kanungo.Silver, an agency based in Canada, is helping organisations use voice to streamline business processes, access line of business systems and improve productivity. We speak to the founder, ex-Deloitte digital transformation guru and speaker, Shawn Kanungo, to find out how it's done.In this episode, we discuss:How voice plus other exponential technologies will disrupt every industry & government agenciesWhat voice looks like when it's combined with robotic process automation (RPA) and moreWhat does voice mean for a digital transformation strategy for an enterprise?How Silver take a human-centered approach to voice by doing ethnographic researchOrganisational culture and whether workers are ready for enterprise level voiceThe future of voice and whether we'll see a billion dollar company built on a voice platfo

It's been a busy few weeks with both of the top two voice assistant platforms announcing new devices and software improvements, but what does it all mean for brands, designers and developers?Google Home Mini becomes top selling smart speakerThat's right, the Google Home Mini smart speaker outsold all other smart speakers in Q2.Google's intense advertising over the summer months looks like it could be starting to pay off. It still isn't the market leader. Amazon still holds that spot, for now.Takeaway:At the beginning of this year, Google Assistant was a nice-to-have feature in your voice strategy. Google's progress over the summer and the recent sales of the Google Home Mini now mean that obtaining a presence on Google Assistant is unavoidable for brands looking to make serious play in this space.We discuss whether you should use a tool like Jovo for developing cross-platform voice experiencesor whether you should build natively.Dustin's pro tip:If you need access to new feature updates as and when

This week, we're speaking to serial entrepreneur, Yann Lachelle, COO at Snips, about the privacy by design alternative to Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.Privacy is a hot topic. With the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the introduction of GDPR in Europe, people are becoming more aware and more concerned with how companies are using their data.On the enterprise-side, one of the challenges preventing companies from implementing voice is the apprehension towards sending sensitive data to Amazon or Google.Enter, SnipsThe Paris-based startup is bringing a privacy-first approach to their voice assistant. We speak to Snips' COO Yann Lachelle about the details and how you can use itIn this episodes, we discuss:What Snips is and its position in the marketWhy privacy is a concern for consumers and companiesSnips' approach to voice and privacyEdge computing and how Snips is tackling securityOpen sourcing the backend of the Snips assistantBlockchain and decentralising the voice ecosystemOur guestYann Lachelle is a

This week, Dustin and I catch up with John Kelvie, CEO and founder of Bespoken, and learn all about the three types of testing that can help you create and sustain great voice experiences.We discuss:Unit testing:how to test your code locally without having to deploy into the cloud and test through your smart speaker or phone. This can save developers a whole load of time and effort in the development phase.End to end testing:how to automate testing of utterances and intents to make sure you're returning the correct response to the various utterances that can be fed through your skill or action. This saves the QA folks time as you no longer need to fire up your skill or action and physically test every possible utterance.Continuous testing:making sure that your continue to keep on top of the ever-changing AI operating systems and ensuring your skill or action is always operating as intended.We also discuss the convergence of usability testing and technical testing and how they can play together, as well as hea

Tony Lizza, Project Manager at Apollo Matrix, shares his battle scars from working on the technical implementation of the Netflix 13 Reasons Why interactive cinema experience.This was a voice and video experience that was deployed through the mobile web browser and was used to promote Netflix's biggest show, 13 Reasons Why.Dustin Coates and I talk to Tony all about the creation of the experience and the technical challenges Tony and his team faced in implementing something so bleeding-edge, including taking advantage of new APIs that allow developers to access a user's mic and video from within a web browser on mobile and how to handle a lack of that functionality within the walled gardens of social media.We discuss using a fallback touch-based experience, the surprising results of user testing, as well as the technical details of how to do speech to text from within a browser and plenty more.Here's a promo video for the experience that gives you a flavour:13 Reasons Why - Talk to the Reasons - Netflixfr

We're starting a new feature on VUX World: The Run Down. Dustin Coates and I are getting together each week (or bi-weekly) to discuss the recent happenings in the voice space and how that'll impact designers, developers and brands.Alexa settings APIWe're starting off by discussing the Amazon Alexa feature that developers have been clambering for since 2016: the settings API.With the settings API, you can access the user's timezone (among other things) and use that within your skill to personalise the voice experience for your users. You can send them targeted push notificationsat the appropriate time and use their preferred weather measurement (Celsius or Fahrenheit).We discuss Eric Olsen's (3PO Labs) in-depth review of the settings APIand how it could be the beginning of something bigger.Scott Huffman's 5 insights on voice techWe also discuss Scott Huffman's post (VP Engineering, Google Assistant) on the five insights on voice technologyand how they should impact your approach. For exampl

Alexa Accelerator 2018 featured startup, Voiceitt, gives people with speech impairments their voice back. Today, we're joined by co-founder and VP Strategy, Sara Smolley, to hear all about it.The There are millions of people across the globe who have non-standard speech. People who've had a stroke or who have multiple sclerosis or cerebral pausey, for example. Voiceitt's advanced speech recognition system, which is deployed through an app, allows those people to speak and be understood.Once it's configured, all you do is speak through the app and Voiceitt will do the rest, handling speech to text and displaying the text on-screen whilst a synthetic voice speaks the words to you.For all that's said about voice being accessible, Voiceitt's mission is to open up voice technology to the rest of the world.Our GuestAfter working in Hong Kong and South Korea in marketing and startup consulting, Sara moved to Tel Aviv to help build and establish Voiceitt. Sara travels across the globe working on the strategic side of

Ben Sauer is a Design Strategist who's worked with some of the world's well known brands: Virgin, Tesco, Pearsons, British Gas, Penguin Random House, BBC. Ben worked with Clearleft as a Design Strategist for many years and more recently turned his attention to how voice will change design.Over the last couple of years, Ben has been focusing on helping brands navigate the voice space and figure out how voice will impact their business, as well as where to start with a voice strategy.Ben joins Dustin and I today to discuss the ins and outs of voice first design strategy, including finding a use case and the differences between voice design strategy and design strategy in general.Where to listeniTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyStitcherTuneIniHeartRadioPippaYouTubeAny other podcast player you use or ask Any Pod to play VUX World on AlexaLinksFollow Ben Sauer on TwitterVisit voiceprinciples.comBenSauer.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The first in a new series called 'Unscripted' where we have off-the-cuff, unscripted conversations with voice first leaders and practitioners to get acquainted, hear their story and find out how they do what they do.In this first episode, we speak to Alexa Skill developing veteran, Nick Schwab, founder of Invoked Apps, about:User adoption of his Ambient Sound skills (his daily usage is huge!)In skill purchasing and his conversation rates (surprising!)Developer rewards and how it all worksHow much it costs to host a successful skillWhy now is the time for Europe to invest heavilyThe discoverability crisis and what's changedFollow Nick Schwab on TwitterCheck out Invoked Apps See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into conversational commerce: what it is, what's possible and how you can turn conversing strangers into paying customers. Our guestCharles Cadbury is the co-founder of Say It Now, a company that helps brands respond the the growing consumer need for immediacy. Charlie's history is impressive. He's seen more than 1,000 client briefs and delivered over 300 digital projects, many of them related to commerce. After working with Lola Tech to create the Dazzle platform, Charlie's attention remains focused on conversational interactions and helping brands convert conversations into commerce. Where to listeniTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyStitcherTuneIniHeartRadioPippaYouTubeAny other podcast player you use or ask Any Pod to play VUX World on AlexaLinksCheck out the Say It Now websiteFollow Charles on Twitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We celebrate the 6 month anniversary of VUX World by reviewing the modev Voice Summit event that took place last week in Newark. We anchor on the Voice Summit to take stock of 2018 and look forward to what brands, designers and developers should be focusing on over the next 6 months.To guide us through #VOICE18, Dustin and I are joined by Tim Kahle and Dominik Meißner, founders of 169 Labs.Win 2 free tickets to the All About Voice conference in Munich on 12th October169 Labs are running a voice first conference of their own on 12th October in Munich: All About Voice.For a chance to win 2 free tickets to the event, just send a tweet using #AllAboutVoice and answer the question: why is 2018 all about voice?169 Labs will pick a random winner who'll receive 2 free tickets to the conference.Use the code VUXWORLD to save 10%.Buy ticketsLinksCheck out the Voice Summit websiteVisit the All About Voice websiteVisit the 169 Labs websiteSee the 169 Labs and Amazon Twitch broadcastSee Tim Kahle's slides from his talkRead

This week, we’re speaking to RAIN agency’s Will Hall and Jason Herndon about how their three pillars of: strategy, creativity and technology, are leading the world's biggest brands to voice first success.In this episode: voice strategy, creative prowess and technological geniusIn this episode, RAIN’s Executive Creative Director, Will Hall, and VP, Engineering, Jason Herndon guide us through the practicalities of how they shape voice strategies and implement voice first solutions for the world's biggest brands.Whether you're a brand, a designer or developer, this episode will help you understand how and where to start.It’ll give you things to consider and help you align voice first initiatives with core business drivers.It’ll show you what you can expect from working with (or at) a voice first agency and give you some examples of how industry-leading brands are approaching voice.It’ll also present some of the challenges you’ll face and maybe even challenge your own thinking on whether your organisation is set-

This week, we speak to conversation design master, Oren Jacob, about what it takes to create successful conversations with technology.There are so many complexities in human conversation. When creating an Alexa Skill or Google Assistant Action, most designers try to mimic human conversation. Google itself has taken steps in this direction with the fabricated ‘mm hmm’ moments with Google Duplex.But does all of this have an actual impact on the user experience? Does it make it better or worse? How natural is natural enough and does it matter?What other factors contribute to conversation design that works?PullString CEO and co-founder, Oren Jacob answers all in this week's episode.In this episode on conversation designWe get deep into conversation design this week and discuss things like:How natural should conversations with voice assistants be?Why you shouldn't just try to mimic human conversationThe power of voice and what tools designers need to create compelling personasWhether you should you use the bu

Translating your Alexa Skill or Google Assistant Action is about more than translating the words in your script. It's about translating the user experience. Maaike Dufour calls this 'transcreating' and she joins us this week to show us how it's done.Why should you translate your Alexa Skill or Google Assistant Action?The world is getting smaller. Technology has enabled us to reach and connect with people from every corner of the earth with ease.Take this podcast for example. It’s listened to in over 40 different countries, most of which don’t speak English as a first language.In fact, the vast majority of the world don’t speak English and certainly not as a first language.Amazon Alexa is globalAmazon Alexa is localised for 11 countries at the time of writing. 5 of them don’t speak English as a first language (France, Germany, Austria, Japan, India).For global brands, having your Alexa Skill or Google Assistant Action available in every country you do business is a no-brainer. But even for hobbyists and smalle

We speak to the creator of the world’s best chatbot about how to design Loabner prize-winning conversational experiences.Steve Worswick is the creator of Mitsuku, the general conversation chatbot that has won the Loabner prizefor the last two year’s straight.13 years in the making, Mitsuku passed the Turing testand convinced a panel of judges that it’s human over the course of a 20 minute conversation, two years in a row, to be crowned the world’s best chatbot and conversational agent.It's featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Guardianand Wired. And, unlike most chatbots that focus on serving a specific set of use cases, Mitsuku is a general conversational agent. That means you can speak to it about anything.This week's Flash Briefing question is from Brielle Nickoloff of Witlingo: What would an open source voice assistant look like? Send us your thoughtsand you could feature on the VUX World Flash Briefingthis week!What about voice?Although Mitsuku is a te

This week, we're finding out how brands can get started and enter the voice first world of smart speakers and digital assistants.Me and Dustin Coates are joined by one of the top US voice first agencies, Witlingo. We speak with two Lead VUX designers, Luciana Morias and Brielle Nickoloff, about how your brand can bridge the gap over to voice.In this episodeBrielle and Luciana share how they guide brands through the process of discovering their voice and establishing a voice first presence.We discuss the new challenge of working out what your brand sounds like and how to determine whether to focus on voice first content or voice as a service.They discuss how brands should be playing the long game and the challenge of convincing clients to start small and adopt a continuous improvement culture to grow their voice first capability.We chat about figuring out whether your should repurpose existing content or create new and discuss some of the great guides to voice design that Witlingo produce, including the guide

This week, me and Dustin are speaking with the Fresh Prince of AI, Frank Schneider, about how Speakeasy AI aims to deliver the promise of AI in voice (that’s a lot of AI’s).How many people truly understand what their customers are asking for? Whether it’s in your Alexa Skill, your chatbot or in your IVR, you can’t hope to serve the needs of your users or customers if you don’t understand what they’re trying to do or ask.Understanding is the most important first step you can takeOnce you truly understand the current situation, you can realise whether you’re meeting your existing customer needs, and how well you’re doing that.Through gathering understanding, you can also work out where you’re failing and where the opportunities for improvement or expansion are.That then helps you improve and plan for the future.Speakeasy AI is helping businesses understand what their customers are trying to accomplish on a wide variety of conversational platforms by extracting the intent from any conversation.Its patent-pending

This week, we’re finding out how content creators can have their podcasts and YouTube content indexed and searchable on voice, with Bryan Colligan of Alpha Voice.With the podcast industry thriving and more people listening to podcasts than ever, more brands are starting to launch their own podcasts. Podcasts are a perfect fit for devices like the Echo and Google Home because they provide ambient entertainment, similar to the widely popular relaxation sounds skills.Two problems face podcast and content creators: how do you make your podcast discoverable in the first place and how do you allow people to search through your backlog of episodes in order to find something that interests them?Podcast discoverability is almost as much of a problem as Alexa Skill discoverability. Although Google is beginning to do its bitto help podcasts be discovered online, what about on voice?This is the problem Alpha Voice aims to solve.Help others get their skill passed first time by sharing your skill certification st

This week, we’re getting deep into voice analytics and will help you learn more about how you can understand the performance of your voice first experience.One of the biggest benefits that technology has given us is the ability to understand. To understand whether our latest PPC campaign had an impact on sales. To understand whether our new website increased our leads. To understand whether our pricing tweak made a difference on click through rates. To understand whether our foray into Facebook is sending more traffic. To understand whether our customers are satisfied.Tools such as Google Analytics have been providing this kind of value to website owners for years. Tracking where your users come from (Google, Facebook etc), what they do when they arrive and whether they convert are the cornerstones of understanding website performance.What about voice analytics?With the introduction of new mediums such as conversational chatbots and voice first applications on platforms such as Alexa and GoogleAssistant, how