Alexa Skill - HousieAssist home assistant who can make life easy for you

Technology can be used to make lives better. How? with this question me and a friend set out to put together some ideas on what we can do on the voice enabled skills which is going to be the next big thing with help of technologies like Alexa, Siri, GoogleHome.



So we wanted to think of a place where one can best use Alexa - there are so many skills availabe in alexa over 50000 I guess, but this skill which we wanted to develop should be simple solution to a day-today problem unique also. In the growing urban population across the globe and nuclear families which has become common thing even in traditional countries like India. How do we leave instructions to people who offer their service in our absence say a cook who takes keys from us and cooks in our absence, kids who arrive before us, parents who needs to be reminded on something. Here is where our idea of HousieAssist a home assistant was born.



Leave voice instructions for different people in your house and they can ask Alexa HousieAssist to read the message for them.



For example: Lets say you want to leave voice instruction for your kid who arrives home ahead of you.



Leave Message:



You: "Alexa, ask HousieAssist to record message for Tejas"

Alexa: "What is the message?"

You: "Tejas, please don't miss your drums class today. Come back and start preparing for your geography test"

Alexa: "Message recorded. Would you want to continue"

You: No

Alexa: " Ok Bye"



Read Message:

Tejas: "Alexa, ask HousieAssist is there are any message for me" (Or they can state their name)

Alexa: "what is your name?"

Tejas: "Tejas"

Alexa: "Tejas, please don't miss your drums class today. Come back and start preparing for your geography test"

Alexa: "Would you want me to repeat message or delete message"

Tejas: Repeat

Alexa - would now repeat and ask if it should repeat or delete message again and delete when you have heard and uttered delete.



The skill is here for download:

https://www.amazon.in/Home-Assistant-Housie-Assist/dp/B07C4V5NY1/ref=sr_1_9/260-9511652-1456468?s=digital-skills&ie=UTF8&qid=1524452660&sr=1-9



Here's a little demo of the skill:

What is usability? - a non-technical explanation

‘What is usability?’ if you search this question in Google with a quest to understand in simple words what this means, the chances are you may end up with more question on what is task analysis, what is IA, what is prototyping…. And the list is endless.

I have constantly thought of ways to explain people who ask me this question. Where do I start, how much should I tell them are some of the questions that come in my mind before answering.

One simple question leading to several question… huh?

Well, recently I had been to a tourist spot in Kerala, India – Padmanabhapuram Palace, were I could nail the answer that I wanted for the question ‘What is usability?’

The entire palace was an architectural wonder a must visit place more so because it is not being maintained well just a few more years before it would be closed for public.  As we passed a water well, I noticed a ring like relief carved on stone at the base where you stand to fetch water.  

It was not even noticed by many who were looking up to marvel the wooden carvings of the palace. Instantly we knew (my husband and I he is also into UI and UX) what it was meant for. It was a relief which has been carved to hold the pots from falling while they are being filled with water. (see next fig. photoshoped)

This my friend is what usability is. There is a purpose, there are tools, but what helps you do it efficiently is what usability is all about (like the ring relief to hold the pot). 

Usability has become a terms that is so restricted to the desktops, smartphones and other electronic devices but to me as a usability professional myself, I enjoy the thought process that has gone inside designs such as this.

This palace was built around 1601 AD, what can I say well a usability guru was there then :)

Adding subtitle to youtube video

I was exploring option to add Portuguese subtitle to one of our business videos. I was trying to get some quote from external vendors and thankfully no one got back :)
So I ventured into how these .srt files are made which is the format that is accepted by youtube.

Youtube has tutorial videos from pretty much everything that you want to learn under the sun or even more. This video came in handy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9t6cvEm600

There is a freeware named DivX Media Subtitler that is easy to use and can help you create the .srt file. Instructions to use this software is available in the video tutorial mentioned above.