1. Alexa’s Back story
Building a persona

2. What is a Persona?

3. 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

4. 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”

5. Introducing Alexa

6. 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?

7. 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.