Other Projects
Outside of passion projects, I have also worked on freelance projects, side projects and design challenges. To encourage creative thinking and learn new tools, I’ve challenged myself to develop a handful of prototypes.
Below I have outlined some of these projects and addressed what I learned from each experience.
Libbie Mental Health Bot
Worked with Start Within Coaching to develop and build Libbie, a mental health chatbot designed specifically for woman of color. Creating this product involved understanding the goals of both the company and their users. Seeking feedback and user testing were instrumental aspects of this work.
Design Challenges
The Daily Omen
Challenge: Create a skill that sorts through a library of narrated audio files
The Premise: Use philosophy to offer thought provoking insights…everyday
Key takeaways
- Tools like Google Sheets have APIs that can link users to audio clips using a webhook
- If you are handing the user off to a new narrator, make sure the user is introduced to the new speaker
- Do not be afraid to suggest specific options to users who make unrecognized requests
The Spectrum
Challenge: Make a quiz that provides results based on how the user responds
Bonus: Design for Alexa and Google Assistant
The Premise: Provide a survey that polls users on where they lie on the political spectrum
Key takeaways
- Jovo is an excellent framework that enables development on both the Alexa and Google Assistant platforms
- How you frame a question is incredibly important
- For one, the way a question is framed can lead the user to respond in a certain way (be aware of these biases!)
- Multiple intents looking for the same type of response (i.e. ‘Yes’ or ‘No) can lead to malfunctions; try to diversify the type of questions asked
- Side note: This also leads to greater engagement!
Des.insp
Challenge: Present users with a variety of response types (ex. images, audio, links, etc.)
The Premise: Provide designers with inspiration for projects based on subjects of interest
Key takeaways
- Sometimes poetry does not translate well into AI voice models. A human touch is still needed in some respects
- It is good practice to close the conversation after delivering the desired content however, occasionally leaving the conversation open to discuss other functions can be beneficial as well
Cognifi Studios 