I was the first product designer at NPR hired specifically to focus on voice platforms. I led the design work to get our flagship news radio program Morning Edition to play on-demand on Amazon Alexa.

I conducted usability testing with a "Wizard of Oz" prototype in which I had participants seemingly interact with an Alexa device, but I played back pre-recorded audio responses from my laptop. The study results clarified our concerns about how and when to announce breaking news and what to do after the 60-minute show ended.

The final output was a diagram I made within Confluence, a site where developers kept and heavily referenced documentation.

Sunsetting a feature

Most importantly, when the decision was made to sunset the project, I was a part of that too. I crafted a user-focused strategy for sunsetting work that I presented at the 2021 Button Conference for content designers (excerpt of slides shown.)

Our digital team has since applied this approach to other projects as a useful checklist to remember each piece of a sunset process. Ending something kindly and clearly is just as important as launching the next new thing.