Shark Ninja Robot Vacuum VUI

Team: 2 UX/UI designers, a voice developer, an app team
Role: VUI Designer
Timeline: 3 months, Winter 2018
Scale: Product released nationwide
Technology: Alexa, Google Assistant, Sketch, Invision

Problem: A robot vacuum moves independently and makes a good candidate for a voice-skill usecase. My agency, Vectorform, was tasked with developing the app, voice skill, and hardware connection for a connected robot vacuum.

Process

Worked with engineers and the app team to sketch out usecases that would be useful, possible, and seamless across voice and app.
Did landscape analysis, conversational research, and branding workshops to understand the tone we wanted to capture in the robot’s “voice”
Created 2 voice user interface diagrams, one for Alexa, one for Google Assistant, to map out the skill, including a welcome message that describes features, error scenarios and solutions, and error prevention opportunities and delivered to developers.
Wrote copy (what the voice assistant actually says) based on research, voice assistant platform standards, app interface copy, and brand identity.
Onboarded two UX designers to the voice design process

Outcome: Shark/Ninja became one of the first voice-connected robot vacuums in the market. The product carries a 5 star rating on amazon.

blurred image of a technical diagram representing the VUI — This is the VUI diagram for the MVP intents we implemented for the Robot. The diagram components were created to be reusable for future voice projects across platforms. We also started brainstorming how we could elevate this to a possible dev tool that would be a GUI for engineers when creating voice skills.

shark robot vacum and screenshot of the shark app — We designed the hardware and app in tandem with the VUI, meaning design principles had to apply to both. Design also had an active role in working with hardware to create features.