A Better Me

Inspiration

In a world where climate and economic conditions are worsening together with people’s attitudes, trying to get through the day can be very exhausting and demoralising for our older ones, making it really difficult for them to stay positive and focused on doing the right thing.

Challenging personal circumstances — including those that come with old age — and advancing technology that doesn’t always take older ones into consideration can make life even harder for them. They may feel left behind and helpless.

If they don’t try to build themselves up and keep themselves going, the world’s conditions together with their personal challenges can easily overwhelm them, negatively affecting their health and how they deal with others and triggering a vicious cycle. Stopping this from happening is vital. Introducing… A Better Me.

What it does

A Better Me will take older ones on an immersive, fulfilling journey to find and work on their weak points, develop priceless qualities to help them deal with life’s challenges, and have a positive effect on the world around them — regardless of their circumstances. Oh, and they’ll work on improving their memory and listening skills too!

The skill uses the matchless wisdom found in the world’s oldest, most translated, and distributed book — the Bible. It tells the stories of the real people in this book in a relatable, compelling way and highlights the modern-day lessons they teach in a way the older ones can apply daily. Simple quiz questions asked as the stories unfold should help older ones to remember them with fond clarity.

There are no sound effects for incorrect answers, because the whole point is to be encouraging and positive. Older ones will be congratulated for being right, not made to feel bad for being wrong.

To make their journey as convenient yet meaningful as possible, they'll be using a C.A.R.: Consideration, Application, and Reflection — a framework with a fitting acronym that I designed specifically for this experience.

After learning about a quality the person in the story was known for, they’ll be helped to start working on developing it. They'll be encouraged to check in every morning to get a new scriptural thought based on that quality, then helped to consider and apply it as they go about their day.

At the end of their morning check-in, they'll be encouraged to check in again before bedtime to be guided on how to reflect on their efforts to apply the scripture that day and to figure out where they may need to improve. During the periods of consideration in the morning and reflection at night, A Better Me will play carefully chosen music as a means of inspiration and to help older ones stay focused.

New stories and qualities will become unlocked as they progress in their journey. They must complete each day’s scriptural consideration and reflection before they can move on to the next.

How I built it

I'm no programmer, so I used Voiceflow, a no-code/low-code platform, to design the entire experience. Then, I uploaded it to the Amazon developer console. I designed the skill to be self-guided to make the experience as simple and frictionless as possible for our older ones. All they have to do is open it, and it'll guide them from there.

I slowed Alexa's speech so she can be more clearly understood. The skill will also voluntarily repeat things in case something was missed or needs reiteration to be understood. It also allows older ones to have important info repeated to them as many times as they need and guides them on what to say so they never have to worry about saying the wrong thing or not knowing how to reply.

For them to truly benefit from A Better Me, it's important that they check in early enough, particularly for the morning Consideration and Application check-in. If it's too late in the day, realistically they won't have enough time or opportunities to apply the day's scriptural thought.

With that in mind, I got some help to make use of the Alexa Settings API so the skill can get to know the device's time zone. If A Better Me recognises that it's too late to discuss the day's scriptural thought, older ones will be prompted to come back early the next day. I used the API in one or two other ways as well.

I used Figma to design my various images, but ended up just using the splash image for now. More on that under the Challenges heading. And I'm no musician, but I used GarageBand for my sonic branding, including in-app sound effects. That was fun!

Challenges I ran into

For starters, bringing no-code to a code fight was a challenge on its own. It was frustrating wanting to do certain things and not knowing where to start.

This was also my first hackathon, my first-ever Alexa skill, and my first time delving into the developer console and all that documentation. Hoo boy! Trying to get up to speed as well as make necessary tweaks to satisfy certain criteria on the platform — with the hackathon's deadline looming large — was a challenge.

I tried using APL through Voiceflow, but the images I designed either displayed at the wrong part of the experience or didn't display at all, which was very frustrating. But I'm not giving up on that. More on that under the What's next heading.

I encountered a weird and frustrating bug that affected some of Alexa's speech effects upon uploading to the developer console. She sounded rather high-pitched for some reason. So I had to go back and make adjustments, which was rather tedious. Alexa doesn't sound exactly how I'd like her to, but I hope that can be resolved in the future.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

1. Building the thing, for starters! It feels good having built my first-ever skill for this particular purpose.
2. Getting certified. Given this was a learning experience for me, I wasn't expecting my skill to get certified. The email informing me that it passed certification was a very nice surprise.
3. The video I made and edited for the submission was my first time doing something like that. I had a blast, and I was pleased with how it came out!

What I learnt

I definitely learnt by doing. This was a learning experience throughout, so there's not enough room to jot down everything I learnt.

For now, I'll say that among other things, I learnt how to navigate the developer console and how to approach skill development going forward. I also learnt how to make and edit videos. That was fun!

What's next for A Better Me

1. New stories should be added along with additional qualities for the older ones to work on.
2. I'd like to get APL support going.
3. If the weird bug is resolved, I'll add some more speech effects for a better-sounding experience.

Built With

• alexa-settings-api
• figma
• garageband
• voiceflow