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What's wrong with it is that it was a stupid idea. People don't shop with their voices and never have. They need to see things.

by smt88 2y ago

dambi0 2y ago
Restaurants?
- tempest_ 2y ago
  Often give or display a menu with prices.
  - dambi0 2y ago
    Often or always? Is reading a generic description of a product (menu) seeing the thing? What about alcoholic drinks in pubs or bars “2 pints of your best and a glass of house red”. Alexa may not be great for purchasing from Amazon but this isn’t because humans have never shopped using only their voices. Nor is seeing things required.
    - smt88 2y ago
      People who can see and read almost never use voice-only to shop. Restaurants and catalogs have menus. Street vendors show you their goods. You don't need to take my word for it. No one uses Alexa this way. The proof is in the outcome.
      - dambi0 2y ago
        The dash button doesn’t use voice it hasn’t proved popular either. Various other threads suggest stability of pricing as an issue. Voice ordering may be part of the issue, as might being unable to see the goods. There is likely a number of issues. The fact something doesn’t work doesn’t prove a single explanation.
fuzztester 2y ago
>People don't shop with their voices and never have. >They need to see things. Nyet. Non. Nada. What world do you live in? People seeing things and then shopping with their voices are not mutually exclusive actions. Not only are they complementary, they are very common, and must have been from the dawn of shops. How many billions of times, worldwide, must people have looked around at some products there, and said "give me 5 foos and 10 bars" at their neighbourhood store or other shop?
- smt88 2y ago
  Alexa shopping was intended to be voice only. Of course people order things with their voice after they've seen them or read a menu.
  - fuzztester 2y ago
    how about IVR? or an advanced, literally voice-only version of it, where you don't even have to press any digit keys to respond to voice menus? heh. maybe I should become a consultant to Jeff, charge him gigabucks.
    - NotMichaelBay 2y ago
      IVR is not a good example because it's an annoying interface that people sometimes have to deal with when calling companies. It actually offers pretty poor UX, because users sometimes know what they want when calling but have to wait to hear the options before making a selection. But it's the best we have for over-the-phone interfaces. Are you someone who orders things using the Echo? If not, are you just playing devil's advocate?
      - fuzztester 2y ago
        I do know that IVR has poor UX, since I use it a good amount on my mobile phone. but did you notice that I also said: >or an advanced, literally voice-only version of it, where you don't even have to press any digit keys to respond to voice menus? above?

What's wrong with it is that it was a stupid idea. People don't shop with their voices and never have. They need to see things.

by smt88 2y ago

What's wrong with it is that it was a stupid idea. People don't shop with their voices and never have. They need to see things.

dambi0 2y ago

Restaurants?

tempest_ 2y ago
Often give or display a menu with prices.
- dambi0 2y ago
  Often or always? Is reading a generic description of a product (menu) seeing the thing? What about alcoholic drinks in pubs or bars “2 pints of your best and a glass of house red”. Alexa may not be great for purchasing from Amazon but this isn’t because humans have never shopped using only their voices. Nor is seeing things required.
  - smt88 2y ago
    People who can see and read almost never use voice-only to shop. Restaurants and catalogs have menus. Street vendors show you their goods. You don't need to take my word for it. No one uses Alexa this way. The proof is in the outcome.
    - dambi0 2y ago
      The dash button doesn’t use voice it hasn’t proved popular either. Various other threads suggest stability of pricing as an issue. Voice ordering may be part of the issue, as might being unable to see the goods. There is likely a number of issues. The fact something doesn’t work doesn’t prove a single explanation.

fuzztester 2y ago

>People don't shop with their voices and never have. >They need to see things. Nyet. Non. Nada. What world do you live in? People seeing things and then shopping with their voices are not mutually exclusive actions. Not only are they complementary, they are very common, and must have been from the dawn of shops. How many billions of times, worldwide, must people have looked around at some products there, and said "give me 5 foos and 10 bars" at their neighbourhood store or other shop?

smt88 2y ago
Alexa shopping was intended to be voice only. Of course people order things with their voice after they've seen them or read a menu.
- fuzztester 2y ago
  how about IVR? or an advanced, literally voice-only version of it, where you don't even have to press any digit keys to respond to voice menus? heh. maybe I should become a consultant to Jeff, charge him gigabucks.
  - NotMichaelBay 2y ago
    IVR is not a good example because it's an annoying interface that people sometimes have to deal with when calling companies. It actually offers pretty poor UX, because users sometimes know what they want when calling but have to wait to hear the options before making a selection. But it's the best we have for over-the-phone interfaces. Are you someone who orders things using the Echo? If not, are you just playing devil's advocate?
    - fuzztester 2y ago
      I do know that IVR has poor UX, since I use it a good amount on my mobile phone. but did you notice that I also said: >or an advanced, literally voice-only version of it, where you don't even have to press any digit keys to respond to voice menus? above?