V.u.x. World

Today, we’re following the story of the inspirational Bob Stolzberg of VoiceXP, and giving you some deep insights into how you can turn Alexa for Business into a business.In this episode, Dustin and I are getting into the detail of how VoiceXP came to be, how Bob almost made $14,500 profit from his first Alexa Skill, why voice is such a big opportunity and how he turned Alexa for Business into a business.We’re also discussing the features that come with Amazon Alexa for Business and some example use cases taken from Bob’s experience, as well as plenty of other areas such as:Selling to corporate clientsThe difference between a skill builder and a businessThe risk of using amazon alexa in businessSecurity concerns and DR complianceThe risks that corporate clients face and mitigationsThe importance of being a Amazon partnerPrivate vs public skillsLocking down devicesUse cases and future use casesReporting and analyticsAgnostic roadmapsThe hard work required to start a startupOur GuestAfter spending 20 years work

Today, we’re discussing the findings of Martin Porcheron’s study, ‘Voice interfaces in everyday life’. We uncover insights into how people actually use Amazon Alexa in the home. We find unique user behaviour, new technology challenges and understand what it all means for voice UX designers, developers and brands.Voice interfaces in everyday lifeImagine if you could eaves drop into someone's house and listen to how they interact with their Amazon Echo. Imagine, whenever someone said “Alexa”, you were there. Imagine being able to hear everything thing that was said for an entire minute before the word “Alexa” was uttered, and then stick around for a whole 60 seconds after the interaction with Alexa was over.Well, that’s exactly what today’s guest and his associates did, and his findings offer some unique lessons for VUX designers, developers and brands that’ll help you create more natural voice user experiences that work.In this episode, we’re discussing:How people use digital assistants in publicThe background

Today, we're getting deep into the biggest challenges facing designers and developers on the Alexa platform: being discovered and making money. And who better to take us through it, than one of the most experienced developers on the voice scene, Jo 'the Oracle' Jaquinta.Speak to anyone who's serious about voice first development and they'll tell you the two biggest challenges facing the voice first world right now are skill discoverability and monetisation. Vasili Shynkarenka of Storyline mentioned it and so did Matt Hartman of Betaworks when they featured on the VUX World podcast previously.However, we rarely hear stories from people who've tried everything they can to overcome these challenges. Until now.In this episode, we're joined by Dustin Coates as co-host and we're speaking to Jo about his vast experience of designing and developing on the Amazon Alexa platform and how he's approached tackling those two big challenges.We also discuss voice UX design techniques that Jo's picked up along the w

Today, we’re getting into detail about what it’s like to be a full-time VUI designer. We’re discussing the details of the role, the day to day duties and the skillsets that are important to succeed in designing voice user interfaces.The role of a VUI designer has been around for a while, but it’s not so common. However, with the rise of voice as an access point for controlling technology, this is one of the roles of the future.If you’re planning for that future and are considering seeking work in the voice first space; or if you’re a voice first design hobbyist looking to take it full-time; or if you’re generally interested in what it takes to create conversational interfaces, then this is a great episode for you.We’re joined by two professional VUI designers, Ilana Shalowitz and Brian Bauman of Emmi, and together they’ll be taking us through the ins and outs of the role that designs voice user interfaces for Emmi’s care calls.In this episodeIlana takes us through an overview of the VUI designer role and disc

We’re talking to ex-Googlers, Konstantin Samoylov and Adam Banks, about their findings from conducting research on voice assistants at Google and their approach to building world-leading UX labs.This episode is a whirlwind of insights, practical advice and engaging anecdotes that cover the width and breadth of user research and user behaviour in the voice first and voice assistant space. It’s littered with examples of user behaviour found when researching voice at Google and peppered with guidance on how to create world-class user research spaces.Some of the things we discuss include:Findings from countless voice assistant studies at GoogleReal user behaviour in the on-boarding processUser trust of voice assistantsWhat people expect from voice assistantsUser mental models when using voice assistantsThe difference between replicating your app and designing for voiceThe difference between a voice assistant and a voice interfaceThe difference between user expectations and realityHow voice assistant responses can

This week, Dustin and I are joined by Matt Hartman, partner at Betaworks, curator of the Hearing Voices newsletter and creator of the Wiffy Alexa Skill.In this episode, we’re discussing:All about BetaworksA strategic vision for voiceChanging user behaviourOn-demand interfacesFriction and psychological frictionHow context influences your design interfaceThe 2 types of companies that’ll get built on voice platformsDifferences between GUI and VUI designVoice campThe Wiffy Alexa SkillLessons learned building your first Alexa SkillText message on-boardingChallenges in the voice spaceOur Guest, Matt HartmanMatt Hartman has been with Betaworks for the past 4 years and handles the investment side of the company. Matt spends his days with his ear to the ground, meeting company founders and entrepreneurs, searching for the next big investment opportunities.Paying attention to trends in user behaviour and searching for the next new wave of technology that will change the way people communicate has led Matt and Betaworks

This week, we’re joined by the Mycroft AI team, and we’re getting deep into designing and developing on the open source alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.If you’ve tried creating voice apps on platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, then you’ll do doubt be familiar with their current limitations. Push notifications, monetisation and all-round flexibility generally leave plenty to be desired.What if there was an alternative? A platform that really did let you create whatever you wanted. Something that'll let you monetise. Something completely open to being used in a way that you want to use it.Well, that’s what the team at Mycroft AI have built.What is Mycroft AI?Mycroft AI is the world’s first open source voice assistant that runs anywhere. On desktop, mobile, smart speakers. In cars, fridges, and washing machines. You name it. You can put it where you like and do with it what you like as well.One member of the Mycroft community has hooked the platform up to a webcam and created a

But first, let's welcome co-host; Dustin CoatesWe're joined in this episode by our new co-host, Dustin Coates. Dustin is the author of Voice Applications for Alexa and Google Assistant and has been involved in the voice scene since day 1. With extensive experience in software engineering, deep knowledge of Alexa and Google Assistant development and an immense passion for voice, Dustin brings a new perspective and different angles of questioning that, not only technical folk, but non-tech people will appreciate as well.One of the challenges with new technology platforms is that you typically need to be able to speak the lingo to develop on them. As the internet has progressed, there are what seems like a million dev languages that you'd need to be able to code in to be able to create your website or app.It wasn’t until relatively recently that tools cropped up to allow designers and total beginners to build on the web. Tools like Wordpress, Weebly and Squarespace have made it easy for anyone to creat

Find out all about the Jovo framework that lets you create Alexa Skills and Google Assistant apps at the same time, using the same code!You know how you always need to write platform-specific code for everything? One lot of code for your iOS app, another load for Android and more for Windows (if you even bother). Well, the same challenges exist today when creating voice apps. Well, those challenges did exist, until Jovo came along.With the Jovo framework, you can create an Alexa Skill and a Google Assistant app all from the same lot of code. It's part of Jovo's bigger mission to enable you to create multi-modal experiences with ease and to join together the sporadic tech outlets to create a unified experience across all devices and platforms.Our GuestJan König is one of the co-founders of Jovo and we're speaking to him today about all things cross-platform voice development. We'll hear from Jan about things like:what 'multi-modal' actually meansfeatures of the Jovo frameworkthe Jovo community and Jovo Studios

Conversational AI crops up constantly in conversations about voice, but what actually is it? How the heck does it work? And how can you use it? We speak to Jeff Smith to find out.In this episode, we cover:An overview of conversational AI - what it is and how it worksThe role of voice in conversational AIHow and why brands should consider using itHow you can get started with machine learning and conversational AIChallenges and opportunities such as the state of analytics and securityAt the foot of the show, I said that this was:“One of the most interesting conversations I’ve ever had in my life.”And I wasn’t lying.Getting to grips with Conversational AIIf you’re not familiar with the concepts of conversational AI, this episode will give you a great introduction.If you are familiar and work in the industry, Jeff drops some great nuggets and learnings from his extensive experience.And if you’re interested in this from a branding perspective, by the end of this episode, you’ll have a full understanding of the con

In this episode, we’re going to show you how you can build an Alexa Skill from right within Wordpress.Wordpress powers almost a third of the internet and now millions of websites running Wordpress can all have a presence on voice. It’s all thanks to VoiceWP, the Wordpress plugin that lets you build an Alexa Skill from within the most widely adopted CMS on the planet.You can create Flash Briefings with ease and even have Alexa read the content of your website. We all know about audio books, but this could be the first opportunity to have your website content turned into audio form and read aloud as soon as its published, without you having to go through much effort at all. It’s super simple to set up.Our GuestVoiceWP was built by our guest, Tom Harrigan, Partner and VP of Strategic Technology at Alley Interactive, a full service digital agency that specialises in helping publishers succeed online. We speak to Tom about VoiceWP, which is allowing brands such as People.com and Dow Jones’ Moneyish.com build

In this episode, we're talking about voice first user testing, why it's so imperative and how you can get started doing your own voice user testing.Why voice first user testing?Although usability testing graphical user interfaces is as common as a trending tweet, it's a seed that’s yet to be greatly sewn in the world of voice. There are many services that will provide technical testing, but those specifically offering voice first user testing in person with real users are few and far between. Enter, Userfy.Whether you create Alexa Skills, Google Actions or any other voice user experience, this episode will help you make sure that your voice user interface (VUI) works for the people that use it through teaching you how to approach a voice-based user testing project.We’ll cover things like:The current state of user research in the voice industryWhy is usability testing important?What kind of users should you test with?User testing processes and planningHow to approach a voice-first testing projectValidating ass

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to VUX World.This introductory episode is all about what VUX World is all about. Here, I'll take you through:the aims of the showhow we intend to meet those aimswhy it existswho would find it usefulwhat's in store over the coming monthsThe aims of VUX WorldThis is an ambitious show that intends to cover three core aims for three primary groups of people:To help VUX pros create better voice experiences through bringing together people from throughout the industry to share insights, tools, tips and tricksTo help brands create voice first strategies and implement voice first solutions through learning from companies and agencies who're doing it right nowTo help grow the VUX industry by introducing people such as creatives, scientists, technologists, strategists, linguistics, developers and anyone else to the voice first worldHow we'll meet our aimsWe'll reach those aims through focusing on three core pillars of content.Why? We'll cover the 'why' aspect of the argumen