Alexa, Ask GeorgiaGov: Better Citizen Engagement with Amazon Echo and Drupal 7

© 2018 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Preston So • 30 Apr 2018 • Acquia webinar
Alexa, Ask GeorgiaGov
Better citizen engagement with
Amazon Echo and Drupal
+

© 2018 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary© 2018 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Preston So has been a web developer and designer since 2001, a creative
professional since 2004, and a Drupal developer since 2007. As Director of
Research and Innovation at Acquia, Preston leads new open-source and
research initiatives and helms Acquia Labs, the innovation lab featured in
international press.
Previously, Preston contributed to the Spark initiative in the Drupal project,
co-founded the Southern Colorado Drupal User Group in 2008, and operated
an award-winning freelance web and print design studio. Preston has
presented keynotes at conferences on four continents in multiple languages.
preston.so@acquia.com • @prestonso • #askgagovacquia
Welcome!

We're Acquia's innovation lab — a small team of
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that push the envelope in emerging technologies.
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– Inclusion and access to state government information
– What is Ask GeorgiaGov?
– Ask GeorgiaGov product strategy
– How Ask GeorgiaGov works
– Conversational content strategy and usability
– Open discussion
What we'll cover

Inclusion and access to
state government information

– Connecting citizens with information
– Users like to be independent
– Technology development is breaking norms
– Content reinvented
– Accessible content
GeorgiaGov and innovation

– Innovation as a byproduct
– Mobile to CUI
– Content-driven experience
– Pages to conversations
– Put citizens in control
GeorgiaGov and innovation

What is
Ask GeorgiaGov?

– Getting information to citizens faster. Save the phone wait
times and the lines at agency offices; ask Georgia questions
from the comfort of your home.
– Widening access to information. Accessibility of content
and inclusive information in citizen engagement.
– Upholding the spirit of open-source innovation. If you use
an open-source foundation, you should give some of your
work back to the ecosystem.
Value propositions

Ask GeorgiaGov
Ask GeorgiaGov is a new Alexa skill which gives citizens of
the state of Georgia answers to questions about popular state
government topics such as how to renew a driver's license,
how to register to vote, how to enroll your child in pre-K
programs, and even who Georgia's governor is.

Ask GeorgiaGov
product strategy

– Build toward a single source of truth
– Meet users where they are, regardless of ability or
socioeconomic status
– Leverage open source wherever possible
GeorgiaGov product strategy

Extending GeorgiaGov popular
topics with Alexa
Existing content written to make common questions
about government services easy to access.

Extending GeorgiaGov popular topics with Alexa

How AskGeorgiaGov
works

– Extends Alexa’s baseline capability
– An Alexa Skill is defined by:
– Intents
– Utterances
– Slots
– Captures the user’s speech in a useful form and passes
it on to an Endpoint
Alexa skills

– An operation or request that will be initiated by the
user in a conversation
– Quite literally, the intent the user holds when speaking
Intents

– Example phrases that help the Alexa service “learn”
what to expect from users
– Trigger an Intent when Alexa hears them
– Can contain Slots within the phrase
Utterances

– Describe variable data that Alexa will capture within an
utterance:
– Date
– City name
– Color
– Car model
Slots

HailCab I want a cab now
HailCab Call me a cab
HailLater I need a cab at {TIME}
HailLater Send me a cab in {DURATION}
Bringing it all together

– Defines Intents and Utterances for:
– Getting a user’s question
– Finding out if the user wants related information
– Getting a phone number the user can call
– Passes info to the GeorgiaGov website (Endpoint)
Ask GeorgiaGov Alexa skill

– Receives user questions from Alexa as Slot data
– Performs a search against indexed site content
Custom handler module on GeorgiaGov

– Manages the multistep conversation flow:
Custom handler module on GeorgiaGov
Topic
Related
Info
Phone
Number

Demo
Alexa, ask GeorgiaGov

Alexa, ask GeorgiaGov

Conversational content
strategy and usability

Conversational content
– Single, brief thoughts
– Zero UI, aural
– Link- and reference-poor
– Low verbosity tolerance
Web-based vs. conversational content
Web-based content
– Predominantly prose
– Screen-based, visual
– Link- and reference-rich
– High verbosity tolerance
Link Link
LinkLinkLink
Intent
IntentIntent

Information architecture
requires more unidirectional,
guided flows for accessing and
navigating content

Content strategy
for web-based experiences
should not be applied as-is to
conversational content

– For this project, we established two criteria for the
eventual editorial experience:
– The editorial workflow of the Georgia editorial staff
will not be burdened by the addition of
conversational content.
– Editing a piece of web-based content and
conversational content should be indistinguishable.
Conversational content criteria

– Topics
– Questions
– Links in questions
– Affiliated agencies
(phone number)
Conversational content audit
We then performed a
comprehensive
conversational content
audit of the entirety of the
site's content.

Conversational legibility
Is this content understandable
to a listener rather than a
reader?

Content discoverability
Is this content accessible to a
listener using a more
unidirectional decision flow
rather than link-rich pages?

Making content less contextually specific
How long can I receive
unemployment benefits?
How long can I receive benefits?
Are unemployment benefits taxable?
Are benefits taxable?
Original
New
Original
New

Calls to action and link-rich text
The Social Security Administration
can help you learn how to change
your name on your Social Security
card.
Learn how to change your name on
your Social Security card.
You can receive payments through
either a debit card or direct deposit.
You can receive payments through
either a debit card or direct deposit.
Learn more about payments.
Original
New
Original
New

Calls to action and link-rich text
In Georgia, the Family Support Registry typically pulls payments directly from
your paycheck. However, you can send your own payments online through
your bank account, your credit card, or Western Union. You may also send your
payments by mail to the address provided in your court order.
Read more about this.
Original
New

– Conversational usability is an unexplored and less-
understood area in usability because it is solely aural,
not visual or physical like typical interfaces.
– Usability testing cannot be undertaken in the traditional
way in conversational use cases.
– No eye-tracking
– No think-aloud
Conversational usability

– The project team adopted the retrospective probing
(RP) approach.
– Think-aloud and concurrent probing (CP) in the
conversational context doesn't work when Alexa
intents are easily invoked.
– RP allows for the conversational experience to be
uninfluenced and for the collection of retrospective
data.
Conversational usability

Conversational usability testing
You have a business license in
Georgia, but you're not sure if you
have to register on an annual basis.
Talk with Alexa to find out the
information you need. At the end,
ask for a phone number for more
information.
You've just moved to Georgia and
you know you need to transfer your
driver’s license, but you're not sure
what to do. Talk with Alexa to find
out the information you need. At the
end, ask for a phone number for
more information.

– 79.2% success rate on all interactions
– 71.2% of all interactions led to agency phone number being
provided
– Most popular keywords: vehicle registration, driver's licenses, state
sales tax
– Featured in Georgia Public Broadcasting segment
– To be featured at VOICE Summit in Newark, first conference
dedicated to Amazon Alexa
Eight months later ...

– drupal.org/project/alexa
– drupal.org/project/alexa/releases/7.x-1.x-dev
– drupal.org/project/alexa/releases/8.x-1.x-dev
– github.com/jakubsuchy/amazon-alexa-php
Useful links

Preston So has been a web developer and designer since 2001, a creative
professional since 2004, and a Drupal developer since 2007. As Director of
Research and Innovation at Acquia, Preston leads new open-source and
research initiatives and helms Acquia Labs, the innovation lab featured in
international press.
Previously, Preston contributed to the Spark initiative in the Drupal project,
co-founded the Southern Colorado Drupal User Group in 2008, and operated
an award-winning freelance web and print design studio. Preston has
presented keynotes at conferences on four continents in multiple languages.
preston.so@acquia.com • @prestonso • #askgagovacquia
Thank you!

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