Antonia Meier
Human Computer Interaction
As part of a Human and Computer Interaction class, I worked on an Amazon Alexa Skill. The task of the class project was to create a dialog situation between a human user and a computer using the interface of the Alexa developer tool with the goal of Alexa providing information to a user's specific problem.
About the Skill
My Alexa Skill would allow users to ask Alexa for instructions on removing a specific type of stain from fabric. Alexa then would read the answer aloud while also showing it as written text. I decided on seventeen different kinds of common stains for my prototype, including oil, paint, and red wine stains.
Developing
I researched two parts: How can a user approach Alexa to get the information, and how and what should Alexa answer. Alexa is woken up by a so-called wake word, "Alexa". Then the skill is addressed by a skill name which I called "Remove stain", for a simple way to ask for help. Alexa then asks what type of stain the user wants to have instructions for. After studying ways of how people would ask for specific stains, I decided to limit the user to either very simple commands such as "oil stain!" or short questions, for example, "How can I remove a red wine stain?". The Alexa developer tool already offers several options of how users can address the problem which I found very helpful.