As a customer experience designer (FTE) for Alexa+, I helped to create a launch feature that utilized AI to summarize relevant news stories for customers and delivering it short form; think NPR's Morning Edition.

Before embarking on design, we wanted to make sure we hit all the things customers where craving for a feature like this. Using insights gathered from the UXR team, I isolated some key needs and wants from customers.

The story-arc of the experience would hit on the same chords as discovered in the user research. In order to make the experience more impactful, it would have to be news stories that they individually cared about, so personalization was non-negotiable. As customers interacted with Alexa, in any domain, preferences could be gathered in memory, which would refine the news briefings.

My initial explorations played with the idea of a moving transcript. The concept: as the audio news story played, a transcript would auto-scroll down the screen. Further, audio transport controls would be tied to the scroll, so if the user tapped and dragged on the screen to scroll the text back, the audio would transport to the time aligned with the transcript. Tech was not able to pull off the concept and this utility would not work well with users not actively looking at the screen. I write this because it highlights that, as designers exploring different options, we always need to go back and align design to user needs, as well as designing within the reasonable constraints of engineering.

This feature is available on any Echo device with an Alexa+ subscription.