Words and sounds for a thoughtful home

In just a few years, Nest has grown from a single thermostat company to a leading smart home brand. That brand, simple, human, and delightful, is at the core of all of Nest design. In these workshops, we’ll show how sound design, voice, and writing come together to create products that you want to live with. From simple greetings to helpful, easily understood messaging, we will talk about the process and details of designing text and speech interactions for the home. Participants will design their own prototypes for connected home devices that speak.

In the workshop on the afternoon, we will begin with an overview of sound design and audio production, discussing how user interface sounds and voices are created for IoT devices and mobile apps. Participants will then form several small teams to create prototype sketches of a virtual product with voice UI, and an accompanying mobile app, incorporating some of the writing from the previous workshop. Participants can use pencils and paper, or any of the digital tools they are familiar with on a laptop (Invision, Sketch, OmniGraffle, Illustrator, etc.) Each group will share their designs for feedback from the teams and presenters.

1. Intro to Sound Design: An overview of sound design techniques and tools, how it interacts with UX design. (about 40 mins)
2. Practice: Small groups sketch out prototype designs for an imaginary home device and accompanying mobile app that incorporates writing, voice, and UX design. (about 1 hour)
3. Review (about 40 mins)
4. Q&A / roundtable discussion: Participants present their thoughts/skills of voice interaction. (about 40 mins)

1. UX Designer
2. UX Copy Writer
3. Audio Designer

1. Understand how to write for products in the home
2. Learn how to design for products that speak
3. Get feedback from speakers and other participants