I presented my first prototype, the published Alexa skill “Seasoning Advice” so I could conduct some user testing and gauge their interest in my theme. Immediately, I noticed the amount of variation between different people when they interacted with my skill. Some would think it through and say the actual food they were cooking (ex. pasta) then categorized it as a region (ex. Italian), while others directly said the region. An error also popped up while reading back the spices. When the user hears the list of recommended spices, Alexa then prompts the user with a yes or no question, to either repeat the list or be taken back to the main menu. There was a case where someone responded with another region invocation instead, and Alexa ended up repeating the spice list for the previous request. These interactions gave me some insight as to how feasible this skill will be in real life scenarios. What if the user doesn’t know what region to categorize their food under? I should make this skill easier to navigate as well and create more safeguards to prevent the conversation from getting stuck in an endless loop.
This week, I had the chance to talk to my thesis advisor, Nivi. With her guidance, we were able to reestablish my original goals and vision for my spice rack. As designers, we must first and foremost understand the problem in order to create a meaningful solution. Therefore this week, I worked on getting back to the basics and shifted gears towards the hardware and functionality of the spice rack. Nivi gave me a bunch of valuable advice and taught me to look through a new perspective: how might my product fail? In most basic terms, my idea is a spice rack that shows you the spices you’re looking for. It will reveal spices and herbs by flavor, region, name, and favorite with an indicator that shows each location on the spice rack. Any additional features with the latest gadgets and gizmos will be great secondary goals to challenge myself with. I must be clear with my vision to prevent myself from being distracted with what goes on top.