Martin Omander - Build Your Own App for Google Home

1. Martin Omander
Google, Developer Relations
momander@google.com
@martinomander
Build your own app
for Google Home

2. Martin Omander
Born and raised in Sweden.
Lived in Silicon Valley for 18 years.
Three startups as a software engineer.
One of the startups went public!
Worked at Google for 11 years.
Support GDGs in North America.
@martinomander

4. Google Home — voice-activated speaker powered
The Google Assistant — A conversation between you and
Google that helps you get more done in your world.
Actions on Google — How developers can extend the
assistant (via Conversation Actions)

5. We are in
the year
2007

6. Ingredients needed
● API.AI account (free)
● Web endpoint, for example Google App Engine app
(free for development)

7. My use case: bell schedules

8. Users say the darndest things
When does Los Altos
High start today?
When does Zoë come
home on Friday?
Does Gunnar need to
leave for school?
When does Crittenden
close tomorrow?
When does Zoë need to be in
school on Monday morning?

9. Fortunately, there is magic
User
⚙
My app
{“School”: “Crittenden”,
“Day”: “Friday”,
“StartOrStop”: “stop”}
Do a lookup{“speech”: “Crittenden
stops at 2:55pm on
Fridays”}
When does Zoë come
home on Friday?
Crittenden stops at
2:55pm on Fridays

10. Demo
API.AI console
Web Simulator

17. ● Train your model in the API.AI console to improve
performance
● Remember to turn off the mic when your app is done,
or your app will be rejected by Google (mine was)
● Pick a good activation phrase

18. Conversation Design

20. GUI :: VUI What’s the difference?

21. Top 3 Design Tips

22. Create a persona.1

23. Persona is conveyed through:
Tone
Word and phrase choices
Functional design
Style
Technique
Voice
...and based on:
Your user population and their needs
The imagery & qualities associated with your brand

24. Preserve and reinforce your persona by
engaging the user as a separate entity
from the Google Assistant.
Own it.
Hey! This is ___
Welcome to ___
Ready to play ____
Hi! ___ here.
Hello. I’m ___
Greetings, human.
Welcome back to ___
Hey again. ___
Let’s play ___
Here’s your ___
Brought to you by ___
Hi there, ___
Let’s get started.
Ready for your ___
___, here to…
Live from ___
This is ___
What’s up, ___
and more...

25. Think outside the box. Literally.2

26. Confidential and proprietary
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STRUCTURE + CODE

27. Confidential and proprietary
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STRUCTURE + CODE

28. Confidential and proprietary
DIALOG + STRUCTURE

29. In conversations, there are no “errors”.3

30. real life
user
conditions{

31. “I don’t understand you”

32. When a so-called “error” occurs in a
conversation, it should be treated simply as
a new turn in the dialog, only with different
conditions.

33. User’s have intent

34. g.co/dev/ActionsDesign

35. developers.google.com/actions

36. Actions on Google Developer Community
https://g.co/actionsdev
Actions on Google Developers
https://developers.google.com/actions
+MartinOmander
@martinomander
Program Manager