Voice Assistant for Business
Designing and building a voice assistant feature from scratch
Product Overview
LogMeIn's virtual business phone system, Grasshopper, allows small business owners to have a professional phone line, without the hassle of hardware. This software can be integrated into the business owner's current phone, whether mobile or landline.
Project Goals
The goal of this project was to create a voice assistant feature specific to Grasshopper. Implementing a voice assistant will increase the competitiveness of the current Grasshopper application, as it would be the first in its market to do so.
My Role
As a UX researcher and designer, I worked with three other graduate students. I conducted market research and competitive analysis on voice technologies, participated in creating a customer journey map, assisted in building an interactive prototype, interviewed users as well as conducted usability testing, and lent my acting skills to the demo video.
Prototype Videos
Below are two demonstrations of the final prototype. The first video is using the voice feature to send a text message, while the second is screening an incoming call.
The prototype features were included and built based off of iterative designs and user testing results. More information on this process can be found below.
Send a Text
Our group found that business owners often used voice interactions while on-the-go, when it was easier to not have to type on their phone.
Incoming Call
Interviewed users noted that they often let unknown calls go to voicemail, but would appreciate a way to screen calls so as to not miss connections with potential customers.
Step - By - Step Research
Our group compiled multiple sources of information regarding voice assistant applications during our research. This included general use case research, a competitor analysis, and journey mapping. Below is an overview of each research step.
Voice Assistant Research
This project began with a look at typical use cases for voice assistants. Our group wanted to understand what users utilize voice interaction systems for most as well as pain points they may come across.
Competitor Analysis
Because Grasshopper is a program designed for small business owners, we wanted to take a look at the capabilities offered by their closest competitors. We determined that no other business phone system currently offered a voice assistant. Google Voice is a voice assistant, however lacks the business phone capabilities.
Journey Mapping and Pain Points
After initial research about typical uses for voice assistants, our team began conceptualizing a customer journey map for Grasshopper. The journey map showed us common tasks, that we grouped into themes. Through this, we determined main pain points a customer may encounter and brainstormed opportunities for a voice assistant to alleviate these frustrations.
User Research
Through a series of interviews and testing, we gathered additional information regarding the use of voice assistant features from small business owners. We were able to determine major themes of voice use and conducted "Wizard of Oz" testing to capture variations in communication phrases.
“I’m constantly on the go. I hold the phone like this and use my voice assistant to make phone calls and send text messages.”
User Insights
“Being able to know who’s calling and forward the call if I’m busy would save me a lot of time.”
"The calling and new text, for me, would be the top two (priority)...”
“...to like get messages out and not having to pick up the phone or necessarily type something out....”
Prototypes and Iterations
Using various tools, our group formatted conversation flows, beginning with whiteboard and sticky note ideation. As we moved through higher fidelity prototyping tools, we improved each flow, ensuring consistency in syntax as well as accounting for variations discovered during user testing.
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Next Steps
Additional User Research
Usability testing of current voice prototype
Create additional visual screens
Create conversation flows for other voice opportunities such as:
-Onboarding and setup
-Leave/listen to voice notes
-Search messages/voicemails/notes
-Contextual instant response
Lessons Learned
As a beginner in UX, starting with a voice assistant program was intimidating. Having to discover not only how to create a voice prototype, but also first experiences with user testing forced me to dig deep in all aspects of the project, with no expectations.
Being able to keep this mindset moving forward as I become familiar with tools and processes will allow me to remain open to the needs of the user rather than how my team or myself think a project should go.