Story Time Rhymes

An ever-growing collection of classic childhood nursery rhymes built for the whole family to enjoy

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Inspiration

Finding out about the contest was the main inspiration for creating the Story Time Rhymes skill. I became interested in the Alexa SDK as well as the new APL, and thought that an entry in the contest would be a great hands-on way to learn and use the information. I chose a children's skill because their generation seems to be more interactive with Alexa, and I wanted them to be able to sit down and learn/interact with the skill for extended amounts of time, either with or without a screen.

How I built it

I began building Story Time Rhymes by first learning how to build a basic Alexa skill. First, I went with a voice-only approach and was able to get the skill working on all headless devices. I then approached the APL by watching all of the webinars available. I began to add chunks of code that I found throughout various GitHub repos to my project. I was then able to edit this code to fit the needs of my skill. Testing on multiple devices was key in getting the skill to run as I intended.

Challenges I ran into

I only ran into a couple real challenges as I was building the Story Time Rhymes skill. The first challenge was getting everything to display properly on devices of all sizes. I used Amazon's built-in viewport rules to make my skill look great no matter what size device it is being displayed on. The second, and more difficult challenge was trying to get the skill to ask for the next rhyme without closing the session. I was able to add speech to the end of my speakitem to serve as a prompt for the next rhyme.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Story Time Rhymes is only my second skill to be certified in the Alexa skill store. I hadn't even thought about developing an Amazon skill before December 2018, and I am very proud to show off what I learned in less than a month.

What I learned

By building and developing this skill, I have learned a vast amount of new knowledge. Javascript, APL, Alexa SDK, CLI, Lambda, s3, and how to navigate the Alexa developer console are just a few of the things I learned. The list could literally go on and on. My problem solving skills were also tested throughout the process. I was able to successfully implement alternate solutions to problems when the obvious solution weren't working. This to me is one of the most important things of all.

What's next for Story Time Rhymes

Story Time Rhymes will be continually updated with new rhymes, new responses, and new fun facts to keep the audience entertained. We are also hoping to expand to multiple regions in languages in the very near future!

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