Hello All
Another great set of UXD links and submissions over the last couple of weeks. Some trends worth noting are the rise in Voice User Interface devices, platforms, and services. I am a big fan of the Amazon Alexa as it enables freedom for certain tasks from a mobile phone, tablet, or computer. Where I find this interesting is thinking about how Voice User Interfaces may improve efficiency and allow the user to maintain focus on other things. In terms of our products and services, voice enabled services could be an excellent addition to help our clients train and retrieve information. Don’s link provides a great background into the rise of Artificial Intelligence, and a reminder that “with intelligence comes power”.
I do hope these links are useful and though provoking to you all. Have a submission? Please send it along.
Have a great week.
Mohit
The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence (From Don)
“A must read”
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html
People Aren’t Using Many Of Amazon And Google’s Home Voice Apps, Report Says
“Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are among the most popular gadgets on the market. The tabletop voice assistants are used to answer questions about the weather, order an Uber, turn on the lights and, in the case of Amazon, do about 7,000 other tasks.”
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/01/24/amazon-google-home-voice-apps
Amazon Echo and Google Home Face Hurdles in Voice App Retention
“Voice-activated personal assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home are facing hurdles in keeping customers engaged in their many voice apps, according to a new report from VoiceLabs, an industry startup.”
http://fortune.com/2017/01/23/amazon-echo-google-home-voice-app/
API.AI
Google recently acquired API.AI, which makes creating VUI services for the Google Home quite easy.
“Conversational User Experience Platform. Now we’re talking. Build brand-unique, natural language interactions for bots, applications, services, and devices.”
https://api.ai/
Voice User Interface (VUI)
“A voice-user interface (VUI) makes human interaction with computers possible through a voice/speech platform in order to initiate an automated service or process. A VUI is the interface to any speech application. Controlling a machine by simply talking to it was science fiction only a short time ago. Until recently, this area was considered to be artificial intelligence. However, with advances in technology, VUIs have become more commonplace, and people are taking advantage of the value that these hands-free, eyes-free interfaces provide in many situations.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_user_interface
Astrum (From Nate)
“Found this really neat JS lib over the weekend. It’s essentially a library for building your own bootstrap/foundation/etc. Fantastic for branding.”
http://astrum.nodividestudio.com
Anatomy of a Gherkin (From Dan)
“I found a good article about Gherkin which we are currently using for our UI Test automation. TSG also uses Specflow for unit testing in Master Crew project. This is a good article for anyone who is unfamiliar with gherkin/cucumber/specflow, or just wants to brush up. I also found a useful video related to specflow.”
http://blog.picklespro.com/2016/11/24/anatomy-of-a-gherkin.html
http://specflow.org/2017/video-traits-specflow/
You Aren’t Gonna Need It (From Kwan)
“Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them.”
http://c2.com/xp/YouArentGonnaNeedIt.html
