mobile experience

Produce a companion UI for the Starbucks Alexa skill 

IN THE EARLY DAYS of the Alexa skill store, Amazon found that skills were too simple and not driving repeat interactions. To lend credence to the skill store, Amazon partnered with Starbucks, a brand with an already substantial presence in the mobile space. Our job was to create an MVP skill and the companion web UI for Amazon’s most significant brand partnership to date, ensuring it landed squarely within the Starbucks digital ecosystem and communicated the same brand feel.

What better way to lead voice technology forward than to link a voice experience to a familiar physical one? 

We drew up a user flow for the Starbucks team to approve, accounting for possible exit points and additional screens needed and updating it as we worked with the Starbucks technical team to get APIs enabled for payment listing, requirements for logins and account retrieval, etc. 

We concluded that we must clearly call out additional requirements, handle any errors efficiently and quickly, and provide distinct next steps for the user that needs them. With so many points for a user to drop out of the process, we knew we must be as forthcoming with UI and messaging as possible. 

03  Possible dropout points

04  Our user’s available payments and selected states

We handle inline errors client-side to minimize screen loads and keep the cognitive load low for the user. Errors states are highlighted clearly, with language pointing to the specific error and the exact steps to fix and continue.

Because a user is only able to change payment methods within the main Starbucks mobile app, the skill screens only list a user’s current Starbucks mobile payment methods. Where possible, we direct the user to tap over to the Starbucks mobile app to make the fix. 

In bringing the Starbucks MVP to the Alexa voice platform, we created a skill with the possibility of daily repeated interactions, to rave reviews. As an MVP, the skill enabled users to order their favorite drink from their favorite Starbucks. Since release, Starbucks has expanded the skill to allow users to reorder one of their last five orders, order from up to 10 different locations, check the user’s primary Starbucks card balance, and has expanded support to newer Alexa devices.

CHECK IT OUT:

Credits

Agency: RAIN
Creative Direction: Starbucks
Project Type: Alexa Skill MVP
VX: Greg Hedges
My Role: Visual design, UI