Interview with the creator of Kids Court — a skill that won Alexa Kids Challenge and $25k
Last week Amazon announced the winners of the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids. We’re so excited that the Grand Prize of $25,000 went to kids court — a skill that was designed and built without any development in Storyline.
We sat down with the skill creator Adva Levin to talk through the challenges she faced designing an award-winning skill. She also shared some insights on how people should think about Alexa, skills, and where the voice ecosystem is moving.
Enjoy! 🙌
Inspiration
Q“Hey Adva, thanks for taking time to talk about the kids court Alexa skill! What inspired you to build it in the first place?”
When I first observed how people interact with Alexa, I noticed most of the adult interactions are either voice commands (“add milk”) or questions/answers (“What’s the weather?”).
Kids interact with Alexa magically. They treat her as a real person captivated in a small box and love to chat with her like a friend.
Q“That sounds very interesting. What happened next? You decided to apply for Kids Challenge contest?”
Yes, I started to map out the friction points of family life where this digital “person” can help. I decided to address one of the most agonizing parts of family life — kids fighting — and created Judge Lexy which is an objective, quirky judge that helps kids settle their battles.
I noticed that in most of the entertainment skills Alexa dominates the communication, and the players respond; My approach was reverse — I wanted the kids to be able to initiate their own story and talk about what troubles them, and have Alexa be an active participant that listens and responds to them.
The Idea
Q “Alright, so can you tell us in detail what the kids court skill does and how it works?”
Kids Court lets kids (and their parents!) settle their arguments in a fun way while getting a peek into how the legal system works. The prosecutor states their case, the defendant answers, the kids can call witnesses and present evidence and finally Honorable Judge Lexy rules with funny dare-style verdicts that the losing side must execute.
While kids probably mostly enjoy the revenge aspect, in the process they learn about the roles of a defendant, prosecutor, evidence, witnesses and more. They also learn to stand up for themselves in a calm manner, to articulate their problems coherently, and to take responsibility for their actions.
Here’s a short demo:
Q“And does it work well for kids of all ages?”
Kids Court is intended for kids age 8 and up. Younger children can enjoy it too if someone explains the legal vocabulary.
I’ve also gotten feedback from people who played with their spouses or even their pets :D
Implementation
Q“I see. Let’s go to the most interesting part. How you built it, what were the first steps?”
I designed an algorithm that helps Judge Lexy determine if the defendant was guilty or not. I crafted a user experience that covers many use cases and is meant to be fun and engaging for the kids even if Judge Lexy rules against them.
As I wanted to focus on content and user experience, I used Storyline to build the entire skill.
There are dozens of different logical paths and various possible responses for Lexy to make her character more engaging and the overall experience more entertaining.
Here’s how part of the skill looks like in Storyline interface:
Q “Love it! You also collaborated with a programmer to make another skill that won a finalist award, right? How was it in comparison to Storyline?”
Yes, I designed Out the Door that helps kids get ready in the morning in an adventurous way. I did the design process on a whiteboard and Excel spreadsheet, and then Avichay Libeskind-Mulyan wrote the code. It was a very clunky work experience for lack of good collaborative design and development tools.
Changing anything in the content required going into the code, and I wasn’t able to experiment and test a lot.
Being able to hear exactly how Alexa says every sentence is so important when you design for voice.
Storyline experience
Q “Yeah, I totally agree. What happened when you started building on Storyline?”
When I discovered Storyline, I decided it would be the perfect fit for kids court — as this skill is entirely conversation based.
While code will always have more options than a closed-program and I did have to compromise a few features like variables, the independence it gave me in crafting the conversation allowed me to focus 100% on content and user experience.
While I was designing, I published the skill to my Alexa in testing mode and spent hours talking to the skill to make sure the conversation flows well.
In fact, editing the content in Storyline is so easy, that I did a special Valentines day edition for kids court in five minutes.
Q “I love those easter eggs in Alexa skills! What was the main challenge for you in creating the kids court skill?”
The real challenge with this skill was the conversation design. Storyline itself was super easy to learn, very intuitive. Once I had the skill designed, it took minutes to publish.
And you guys have the absolute best customer support and such a fantastic community. Someone was always there to help and answer every question I had.
Q “That’s true. What did you learn?”
I learned a lot about how to design for voice, and I specifically learned so much about designing for kids. Once I started user testing, the design changed remarkably. It’s super valuable to test skills on real people.
Personally, I come from a start up background but this was the first product I ever built entirely on my own and not as part of a team.
What’s next
Q “What’s next for kids court? Are you going to add more features to it?”
Yes, of course. I’m constantly adding new content and I’m working on version with more features. I also built a companion website for Kids Court so kids can be more creative with their own ideas for verdicts and file for an appeal. The engagement I’m getting on the website is outstanding and it’s really interesting to explore how the connection between the mediums adds to the general experience.
I’m also working on some other skills in Storyline and set up a website for my company, Pretzel Labs:
Thanks for reading! 🙌
Check out other skills by Adva on her website, www.pretzellabs.co.
Have questions about the product? Feel free to ask them in our community.
Best, Storyline team.
