Alexa’s Back story Building a persona

What is a Persona?

BMW Voice Interface Persona (p. 54-57) Tasks: Provided Mechanical Warnings Giving Directions Provided information – safety and control Consistent with: the range of tasks/functions AND what people expected from the car/branded Used by: both extroverts and introverts

BMW Voice interface Decisions Technical Excellence; Decision: Recorded not Synthetic Need for a reliable assistant that people trusted; Decision: Co-pilot qualities Personality: Slightly Dominant; Somewhat friendly; highly competent; Solution: Medium intensity; limited pitch range; low pitch, average speech rate. Word Choice: Voice did not say “I”

Introducing Alexa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXS7rC1PWo

Questions to answer about Alexa Where is Alexa from? What kind of expertise does Alexa have? What was Alexa’s last job? What is Alexa’s personality? What are Alexa’s voice qualities? What other questions can you ask to create Alexa’s Backstory?

Activity Get into your new groups of 4 Review the list of things you can try with Alexa Take a couple of minutes per team to interact with Alexa Return to your groups and work on a back story that answers the questions on the previous slide; and other questions that your team thinks about.