What Makes an Alexa Skill Truly Useful?
When it comes to what makes an Alexa skill useful, it's not always the most obvious features that stand out. While convenience is paramount, truly effective skills often provide deeper value by solving specific and recurring problems. This article delves into the essentials, offering insights from the experience of building over 100 Alexa skills and helping others create more than 10. We will explore the fundamental criteria and how to apply them to create genuinely useful and popular Alexa skills.
Understanding the Value of a Useful Alexa Skill
When evaluating the usefulness of an Alexa skill, it's important to consider how it adds value to everyday life. For instance, if you're spending quality time with kids, you might use the funny aspects of Alexa to keep them entertained with jokes, animal sounds, and amusing noises. Alternatively, if you are focused on productivity and need to clear your mind after a hectic day, skills like those providing guided meditation can be incredibly valuable. At its core, an Alexa skill that is useful is one that simplifies daily tasks, enhances convenience, and personalizes your experience. This is where the power of voice interaction truly shines, as it allows for seamless and natural use across multiple devices and skills.
The Criteria for a Useful Alexa Skill
The same fundamental criteria that make a physical product useful also apply to Alexa skills. To identify a truly useful skill, consider the following two key factors:
1. Solving a Specific Problem
Consider the products you use daily, such as toilet paper, razors, soap, washcloths, towels, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and hair brushes. Why do you use them every day? The reason is simple: they solve a specific problem. Each of these items meets a unique need, often in a straightforward and efficient manner.
2. Repeatedly Solving the Same Problem
For a skill to be truly useful, the problem it addresses must be one that needs to be solved repeatedly. For example, a skill that helps users fall asleep faster (like the popular 'Sleep and Relaxation Sounds') is useful because people need to fall asleep every night. This skill helps solve this problem consistently, making it a daily utility for many users.
Popular Examples and Insights
One of the most popular Alexa skills on the platform, 'Sleep and Relaxation Sounds,' has garnered over 10,000 reviews with a 4.8/5 star rating. It clearly addresses the fundamental criteria for usefulness:
1. Solving a Specific Problem
The skill helps users fall asleep faster, addressing a simple but often challenging problem for many people.
2. Repeatedly Solving the Same Problem
Since most people sleep every day, this skill is used repeatedly, making it a valuable tool in many people's lives.
By adhering to these criteria, developers can significantly increase the chances of creating an effective and useful Alexa skill. Applying these principles to your skill development process can lead to greater user engagement, satisfaction, and overall success on the platform.
Conclusion
Creating a truly useful Alexa skill requires addressing specific and recurring problems that users face daily. By focusing on these key criteria, developers can ensure their skills provide genuine value, enhancing the lives of users in meaningful ways. Understanding and leveraging this insight is crucial for any designer or developer looking to contribute to the Alexa ecosystem.