Alexa and Facebook Portal
Facebook’s Portal line brings families and friends together across the globe. It’s about connecting people through home conference devices and their existing apps, allowing them to video chat more comfortably and with added features like StoryTime.
Because of the home-based nature of the devices, Alexa was a perfect fit to bring additional desired capabilities like learning the weather forecast, playing music, and controlling smart home devices hands-free via voice.
Roles
User Experience design, User Interface design, Copywriting
Alexa on Portal
I worked with the Facebook team to integrate Alexa set up into Portal’s onboarding flow, finding the appropriate time to introduce Alexa and its capabilities while differentiating Alexa from Portal assistant. I also worked with Alexa teams to ensure the proper display of Alexa visuals on the 3 new Portal displays.
Code Based Linking
We chose to use a code to authenticate Alexa from another device—a simple and familiar method for the majority of Portal users.
Alexa on Visual Devices
We provided Portal users with the most robust and consistent Alexa experience possible, displaying visual Alexa responses consistent with those from popular Amazon Echo devices like Echo Show and Echo Spot.
Because Portal’s global interface is different from that of the Echo products, we had to make updates to the user interactions to maintain Portal’s interface guidelines and enhance usability.
Alexa Across the Portal Line
Alexa now works across 4 Portal devices—bringing hands-free features to families all over the world, on small screens to TVs.