Survival Kit

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  Future Features

Inspiration

I've had putting together an emergency kit together for my family for at least two years but found it to be overwhelming and time-consuming, despite it being such an important thing to have ready. As I write this Hurricane Florence has hit the Carolinas and Typhoon Mangkut has hit the Phillippines. Certainly, there will be other natural disasters and unplanned situations--such as fires--will, unfortunately, affect families. My inspiration is to help people and their families prepare for emergencies via a skill that offers a survival kit culled from the Red Cross and FEMA.

What it does

Survival Kit gives users a task every visit to complete, that gets them a step closer to compiling basic emergency bag. It uses persistence to remember the user's previous sessions so that they don't have to start from the beginning every time. Users also get badges after every session to give them accolades for getting a step closer to completing their survival kit. I made sure that any SSML used worked in all English-speaking regions and that it provided information for those who were on the metric and imperial systems.

How I built it

Survival Kit uses VoiceApps and s3. All SSML used works in every English-speaking region.

Challenges I ran into

Figuring out the user experience was a challenge because I think it'd be incredibly useful to offer products that I've vetted and allowed the user to order them on Amazon via a voice command. For example, I'd love to allow the user to tell me how many people live in the household and the skill would calculate how many gallons or liters of water to add to the user's cart for their survival kit.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm proud to have built a skill that has the potential to save lives.

What I learned

Building for voice is fun!

What's next for Survival Kit

The skill will offer users the option of obtaining the list of items via a home card if they want to skip the process and have more time. Additionally, I'd love to work with an expert at the Red Cross or FEMA to vet actual products available on Amazon and make recommendations that are fully tested that users can buy via the skill. I'd also love to add survival tips. I'd also create versions for specific situations and emergencies such as people with children, pets or people would be better helped by a skill that targets the type of emergency they might face--floods, hurricanes, winter storms or tornados.

Built With

• s3
• voice-apps