It’s Good to Talk…
Journeying into the world of voice
We are at the point in society where its acceptable or at least tolerated that two people on a date can get their phones out and ignore each other whilst connected to the digital world blissfully ignorant of the world around them. Software development is traditionally a home for those of us that are not chatty and find solace with their computer as a way to pass the time.
However, something is fast coming over the horizon that is setting out a new way to interact with digital services, something that could change the Lone Ranger relationship between a person and the information or action they would like to engage with.
‘Ok Google’, ‘Alexa’, ‘Siri’ are all helping to change our habits and bringing conversations back.
Consumers, aided by discounted prices for consumer devices, are buying in their droves.
Leading an innovation unit, 18 months ago we knew that conversations were something that needed a good look at — there were a number of frameworks that support voice, from IBM Watson, Microsoft Bot Framework, Lex and AWS, and Google which we considered. We realised that this could be a new platform to augment our portal and mobile offerings to aid students in their time at our university.
So quickly we created some internal prototypes to aid our understanding and showcase to other stakeholders the possibles. From an Elf themed mince pie ordering system utilising the bot framework, to a bin and bus information bot with AWS at its core. We discovered and enhanced our awareness of what this new medium could offer.
Needless to say, these prototypes enabled us to secure investment and now we are mid delivery on our new platform, learning as we journey and setting out our next steps and looking forward to where this will take us.
