Samaya
Duration: 1 day
Voice Assistant
Samaya logo
Why the name Samaya (ಸಮಯ)?
Samaya (ಸಮಯ) which means time in Kannada. The idea behind going with this name is because this application associated with time and how to plan tasks effectively. The logo shows a half clock with the minutes and seconds hands which indicates time is precious and one should value time.
Team
7 members
(4 students, 3 working professionals)
My Role
Team Lead
Ideation
Reserach
Domain
Edtech/Education
Voice User Interface
About
This was an Ideation challenge by Amazon Alexa Team called “Design JAM ” at the Design4India, a NASSCOM initiative held in August 2019 at Bangalore. This workshop provided an overview of the history of design in technology, highlighting what we have learned about technology evolving with voice over the years. Designing for the ear is different from developing for the screen. This workshop taught best practices for voice-first design contrasting them with GUI design principles. l learned of the similarities and differences when developing for voice, compared to screen-oriented mediums and situational design and at the end we had a hands-on design jam followed by announcing the winners.
Executive Summary
Problem: A number of students write project/assignment deadlines on a piece of paper and lose it. When the deadline is nearing students tend to panic in order to complete the projects/assignments. Students also refer to timetables on their phone and forget to take certain books during practical days. A few higher grade/undergrad students might be facing an attendance shortage for particular subjects and are not aware that they should attend most of the upcoming classes to keep up with the minimum attendance requirement.
Solution: Samaya helps to solve problems faced by students. Each student would enter necessary details such as their timetable and class schedule into a mobile application. Most of the smart schools are equipped with online applications which send out reminders by emails. These apps can be integrated with Alexa with all the necessary details. A reminder is set and Alexa informs a student in advance with respect to tests, assignments and attendance percentages.
Focus group
We narrowed down our focus area to two User groups. The two User groups are shown below:
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School Students
Under grad and Post grad Students
My Contribution
As this was just a design challenge the main aim was to ideate and come up with solutions that helped users and to explore the basics of Voice User Interfaces and Situational Design. I led the problem discovery and assisted with the design of the voice interaction flow followed by a brainstorming session. I also took this opportunity to lead this project and assign tasks to my team members to move in the right direction.
User Interviews
Since we were running out of time we gathered insights from some of our friends over the telephone. We investigated the needs of users and identifying their problems. We conducted a few informal interviews and immediately noticed that students are either forgetful when it comes to exams, timetables, project deadlines and assignments. Most of the students had made notes in pieces of paper and forgot the deadline or upcoming tests and classes due to their busy schedule.
Why Voice?
We decided to select voice as a method of communicating as it’s a natural way of navigating when multitasking in real life as the students might be engaged with assignments or a lot of homework. This way users don’t need to learn how to use a new technical system and would totally immerse in their day-to-day life with ease.
How This Works?
A brief overview of how "Samaya" works with three scenarios.
Scenario 1 : A basic reminder of classes/timetable
Scenario 2 : Reminder for assignments and tests coming up.
Scenario 2 : Reminder for attendance shortage
Future Direction
As this was just a design challenge we came up with something new to address the pain points of students. We did not prototype this idea in real. There were certain more elements that could be added to make the app more engaging.
Conclusion
There were around 15-20 teams participating in this Design JAM hosted by Amazon Alexa and there was a mix of working professionals and students in the team. Since the judges liked our idea we were the winners and won some goodies from the Amazon team.
The team behind this idea. Yes that is me in the centre 5th from left and right.
The Amazon Alexa team at both extreme ends.
Let's work together.
