DANIEL MYERS: Welcome to Assistant
on Air, where we have conversations with people
who build for Google Assistant.
I'm Dan, and I'll be your host today.
I'm a developer advocate for Actions on Google.
Today, we'll be chatting with Adi, who is a Google Developer
Expert for Google Assistant.
And we'll be talking all about voice strategy and design.
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So tell me a little bit about yourself.
ADI MAZOR KARIO: So I'm a design strategist.
I do design thinking.
I'm a GDE, Google Developer Expert, for Assistant.
And I'm happy to be here.
DANIEL MYERS: Awesome, awesome.
So my understanding is that you've been in this space
for a while.
You work with a lot of companies around strategizing
and developing some of their voice strategy and their voice
actions.
Tell me a little bit about your methodology
that you go through with some of your clients.
ADI MAZOR KARIO: So first, I think because it's so young--
voice is so young, and for us, as human being,
it's so natural.
But for the technology, still, it's only a beginning.
And all people are thinking, what could that be?
So when we're thinking about brands and companies,
they're wondering how can they utilize this technology.
And they're just thinking about it.
So we know this is a very successful technology.
Actually, it was the fastest growing technology out there.
So it took three and and a half years for the smart speakers
to get to 50% of the US household.
And it took-- for example, if you compare,
mobile took more than seven years.
So we know that people are interested in it,
and they love it.
So companies are thinking, how can we use that.
And they need to find the right use case because in many cases,
people are very used to seeing the screen
and seeing something in front of them.
And in voice, we don't get that.
It's serial.
We get the information one after the other.
So they need to understand what is the best use
case for the users and their customers
to use this technology.
And we're trying to think about it together.
For example, if it's something which is very simple,
if the product or service is very--
it's very simple, and it's very easy for you to relate to,
and it's not that expensive--
for example, groceries, you buy really easily if it's on voice.
And if it's something like a car or a flight for you
and your family, it might take more time to do it in voice,
and that's why you'll do it less.
So if you have a use case, which is like multitasking, very
simple, maybe while you're driving, while you're
cooking, while you're running, it's
really obvious it should use voice.
So we're trying to find the right path for that.
DANIEL MYERS: So that's awesome.
So what does a typical design sprint or voice
sprint that you work with, on your clients
on, what does that entail?
And what pieces do you go over?
ADI MAZOR KARIO: So a design sprint
is a design thinking methodology here
from Google, and as a design sprint master
that I learned here.
So we go through four stages.
The first one is understand.
Then you go to design, define, and then validate.
So the first-- you take the challenge,
the understand stage.
You take this challenge.
And you really need to understand it.
And for people thinking about voice,
the challenge is, what is the best use case,
and how can we think about the users connected to this use
case?
What will they do?
What will be the flow?
So this is the beginning of a regular design sprint.
Then to define which is the persona of the user
and of the Assistant, actually.
So we have two people speaking here.
One is the user--
we're used to doing a persona for the user.
But the other one is the Assistant itself,
like when you think about the home, for example.
It's a person.
Like, you're talking to someone.
You're not talking to it.
It's not a AI.
It's not the technology.
You're relating to it as a person, actually.
So we need to think, who is this person talking as your brand.
So what is the identity of your brand, talking to users?
What do you want them to perceive
from your brand or your company?
And how do you want them to feel?
So it's very important.
How will I relate to this Assistant or technology?
And when you do the define, you need to define a conversation.
So what will the two parts say?
What will the user ask, and who will answer,
and how will they answer?
And what will be this discussion?
So we are designing a conversation, instead of
a flow of screens that we usually do in UX.
And the last part is validating.
So you need to validate, actually,
a usability testing, but for voice.
So how do you really validate?
One thing, which is very important to know-- so
when you do a product, you usually do a beta,
and then you just publish it.
And then it's out there.
But in voice, you actually have only the beginning.
It's just a skeleton.
And from there, you start really to develop your product.
You get all the insights, all the--
what people are saying, all the data from your users.
And you really start to build it from there.
So it's a process.
It's only the beginning once you publish it.
It's not like, yeah, it's out there.
Go and use it.
DANIEL MYERS: Right, right.
So that's awesome.
So from your experiences going through
and working with your clients, what are some top lessons
learned or common misunderstandings
that they may have about voice?
ADI MAZOR KARIO: First, I think that when
you're thinking about technology and people,
about-- when we are thinking of voice,
we are just like before the Windows era.
Like, people are thinking, OK, we'll do that,
and then people will use it.
And they don't think about design at all in many cases
because they say, OK, we know what we want the user to ask,
we know what the answers are.
And we just met that.
And why do we need a designer here, actually?
And I think that, in many cases, you
see a lot of applications and actions, in this case.
And they are not as good, because people don't want to--
their attention is not there.
They don't return and use it again and again
because the experience is not adjusted to their needs
and what they're really doing.
And I think this is the biggest barrier for doing design
and to implement what we know from design and the methodology
from screens and use it for voice.
DANIEL MYERS: Awesome, awesome.
Well, thank you so much, Adi, for coming on stage with us
here today.
We hope that you liked today's show.
If you want to hear the full interview,
check out the Assistant on Air podcast
on your favorite podcast platform.
I'm Dan, and chat with you next time.
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