How do you choose a wine when all you know is red vs. white? This is a common problem when ordering wine at a restaurant that Wine Me is looking to solve.
Wine Me is a personal sommelier voice assistant crafting a custom experience by finding a wine fit for the occasion. Try it out and let me know which wines and features you want to see next:
Depending on the device, Bixby responds with a mix of modalities (voice, graphics, haptics). Designing context appropriate dialog that aligns with how people use a certain device is a core part of my role.
Due to NDA, I can't share many specifics.
One of my core responsibilities is sharing knowledge, which means I work at the intersection of many teams and bring their expertise together to evangelize best practices.
I am the lead writer and designer for a guide on conversational patterns that was the first of its kind to be used within the Bixby team.
I treated the conversational patterns like the foundation of a design system with the goal of creating a consistent Bixby voice.
What started as sketches of common use cases evolved into interaction flows from which several patterns arose. Then, there was considering Bixby's understanding (i.e. what if Bixby misheard the user?) against the user's perspective (i.e. what kind of goal do they want to accomplish?).
After several iterations, the patterns were grouped into "Bixby's needs" and the "user's goals," which serve as building blocks of a conversation.
The perceived latency on watch needed a redesign. Before, screen dialog added more time between a user's utterance and goal. Now, the user's request is quicker, like when starting a timer.
User research showed that extra dialog like "here you go: " didn't add value. Bixby no longer says this when showing results.
Beyond these watch examples, I write dialog improvements for use cases such as reading schedules, disambiguating between SmartThings (IoT) devices and organizing lists.
Discoverability is a challenge in consumer conversational AI like Bixby.
Apart from designing experiences, I use copywriting and marketing campaigns to let users know how to personalize their Bixby interactions.
I also explore new experiences and modalities alongside the research team. Maybe some will be coming to a device near you.
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Scrolling client logos and engaging microinteractions create a more delightful user experience
Family Refugee Services (FRS) is part of a larger organization where teams juggle multiple projects at once that overlap with various departments.
I defined the scope of a UX designer early on since FRS had not worked with one before. I defended my project plan through user research and frequent stakeholder meetings
To help refugee families, we must first help their mentors. It is difficult to design digital tools for the families due to language barriers and inconsistent internet access.
Family Refugee Services (FRS) is part of a larger organization where teams juggle multiple projects at once that overlap with various departments.
I defined the scope of a UX designer early on since FRS had not worked with one before. I defended my project plan through user research and frequent stakeholder meetings
To help refugee families, we must first help their mentors. It is difficult to design digital tools for the families due to language barriers and inconsistent internet access.
"Atomic design is not a linear process, but rather a mental model”
The high fidelity prototypes were not using components (reusable elements), which created inconsistency. Each designer was working in a silo rather than using a standard design library.
After I conducted a high-level audit to demonstrate this problem, the team began to divide and conquer.
After compiling all desktop and mobile screens, the designers spent several meetings reviewing current styles and proposing changes. Following iterations, we compiled the new system in Figma and Zeroheight.
Using Figma to create the design components and Zeroheight to document them, there is now a place to reference all design. I also wrote a process explaining how to use Zeroheight. Existing prototypes now use components that update whenever the system changes.
Family Refugee Services (FRS) is part of a larger organization where teams juggle multiple projects at once that overlap with various departments.
I defined the scope of a UX designer early on since FRS had not worked with one before. I defended my project plan through user research and frequent stakeholder meetings
To help refugee families, we must first help their mentors. It is difficult to design digital tools for the families due to language barriers and inconsistent internet access.
This use case passes Google's checklist to determine if the experience will be enhanced through voice first technology.
Ensuring that the goals of the restaurant are aligned with the goals of the voice assistant and customers will create a more natural conversation.
Restaurants want to associate their brand with a personalized dining experience
System should not come off as snobby, boring, or unintelligent
Customers want a perceptive, savvy, and polite voice assistant
Brilliant sommeliers hold key characteristics that the system should be designed to emulate. Customers are assumed to have tried wine before and expect something high quality.
The Wine Me MVP is live on Voiceflow. Sample dialogs show what is done and what is yet to come.
Try Wine Me to:
The average American wastes 17 hours a year trying to find parking. In Los Angeles, that costs drivers nearly $1800 annually.
During a 24 hour Hackathon, my team conceptualized a screen-less, all-voice parking companion.
With fewer distractions and frustrations, this technology could save millions of hours and dollars.
The market for an AI-based parking system is growing. Smart cities are the next infrastructure frontier, using integrated software and hardware to reshape transportation.
Given time constraints, we focused on key aspects of the user journey
