Inspiration
I was inspired to create an Alexa skill ever since the SDK became available, and finally decided upon an idea last fall. The idea was help users recycle in the kitchen, where there is commonly an Alexa device. I have been a recycling advocate and lover of nature my entire life, so it was a natural fit to take on this project.
What it does
Recycling Facts is an Alexa skill that helps users recycle household waste by providing them general information about what is accepted by curbside, single-stream recycling. The skill also provides special instructions for different materials, such as washing out plastic containers. For more complicated items like styrofoam and electronics that are not accepted by curbside recycling, the skill will offer suggestions such as retail store locations or mail-in programs.
How I built it
The app is built mostly with node.js and hosted by Amazon's Lambda service. There are a few back end scripts that automatically generate some of the data files, including any reprompts or aliases needed, additional notes for various materials, and all the various combinations of words with plastic numbers that can occur.
Challenges I ran into
Keeping track of data between sessions, or clearing data inbetween invocations can be tricky to manage. For Recycling Facts, I needed to be sure data is cleared out each time a question is answered successfully, and only stored if a reprompt is necessary.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I like the user experience on the Echo Show in particular, because when the skill needs more information the choices are displayed in a list with a large, clear font.
What I learned
Designing for voice is very different for designing for screens, and it is easy to slip into a terrible phone-tree like user experience. Accepting as much input as possible (even mistakes like 'cart board') can make the experience much better for users.
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