“Troy Web Consulting asked smart questions and offered the benefit of their design experience. This was particularly important as we’re developing a product in a brand-new space: voice-first devices with screens.” — Salvatore Prividera, Chief Operating Officer
Project Objective: The virtual assistant is a growing trend that shows no sign of stopping. Newer and more advanced versions of Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home and Cortana are continually hitting the market and finding their way into homes. Consumer reliance on them is also growing—for everything from news and music, to online shopping and controlling utilities. Voiceter Pro, a conversational search company that creates voice-enabled technology products and tools, saw a gap in the services voice assistants provide.
So the company created an Alexa app that allows people to ask about real estate listings and property values. All prospective home buyers have to do is install the app to convert their virtual assistant into their virtual realtor.
Voiceter Pro needed a graphical user interface for its voice-driven real estate listings search product to create a visual display on the Amazon Echo and Fire Cube TV. This display had to offer navigation compatible with voice prompts, display listing information and provide client branding opportunities.
Project Background: Although Voiceter Pro had already produced a back-end system to provide basic account management in the Alexa app, they needed an outside technology partner to produce a front-end agent application to allow for realtor sign-up, more complex account management functions, and end-user account creation.
Voiceter Pro says it selected Troy Web Consulting based upon its experience in developing user interfaces with an emphasis on delivering the best user experience possible.
Using React, Troy Web created an HTML/JavaScript app that seamlessly operates with the back-end of Voiceter Pro’s existing website. Over the course of a week, the team at Troy Web worked quickly to provide Voiceter Pro with options, gather feedback and refine the work. The team focused on designing with high-quality visuals and sharp angular patterns, giving the app a modern look.
Product features included:
A mobile-friendly design
An agent login interface (to allow users to create a unique email and password)
An agent profile management interface (to allow agents to update contact/biographical info, photo, etc.)
A generated unique link to allow agents to post on social media
A “thank you” display message upon successful sign-up
Buttons to share the link to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn “The work we have done with Voiceter Pro is a great example of how we meet our clients where they are,” said Jon Briccetti, Troy Web’s CEO. “In this case, they had a small internal dev team but needed very specific help with designing a great user experience, and in the case of the interfaces for the Alexa Show, they needed help in an emerging technology area. We aligned our teams and integrated our processes to get the work done in lightning-fast timelines. We did the research, design & build on the interface side and they took care of the back-end.”
The Challenge: The Echo Show is new technology, and very few applications for it exist at this time. The device functions are similar to a tablet with a touch interface. That being said, the vast majority of user interaction with the Echo Show is accomplished through voice commands. Troy Web Consulting needed to focus its design on minimal touch interactions.
Business Impact: Salvatore Prividera, chief operating officer at Voiceter Pro, says their new app has made it easy for realtors and prospective home buyers to enroll in the company’s program. The product has been well received by Voiceter Pro’s current and prospective clients. “Troy Web Consulting took our ideas and created designs that captured our intent while providing a smart, intuitive display of navigation, information, images and branding for our voice-driven, Albany Real Estate Skill on the Amazon Alexa platform,” Prividera says. “Partnering with Troy Web Consulting allowed us to focus on our core competencies while creating the next evolution of voice skills.”