A M A ZO N A L E X A · 2 0 2 2 – 2 0 2 3
Reimagining Alexa discovery on smart TVs
ROLE
Lead Product Designer — with PM, Marketing, Engineering, BI
CRAFT
Interaction design · Multimodal design · Discovery strategy
OUTCOMES
100K+ interactions in the first 3 weeks · foundation for future personalization and ad placements
New!TLDR;Alexa was built into millions of smart TVs. Almost no one was using it.
Not because they didn't want to, but because the setup experience gave them no reason to start. Despite strong registration numbers, most users never came back after the initial setup. No clear next step, no guidance, no reason to open the app again.
I came in to lead the design end to end: from content strategy and discovery framework through final design and launch.
The pre-redesign home screen surfaced registration numbers, but almost no engagement.
Before designing anything, I reviewed multiple rounds of existing research: lapsed user studies, never-active customer research, and partner voice-of-customer data. Four knowledge gaps kept surfacing consistently.
01
"How do I even get to it?"
Users didn't know how to access Alexa on their TV — no visible entry point they could recall.
02
"I already have an Echo."
No understanding of what Alexa on the TV did that the speaker on the shelf couldn't.
03
"Is there more setup?"
Uncertainty about whether extra configuration was required stopped people before they tried.
04
"Why change what works?"
Nothing in the experience gave a reason to choose voice over a familiar remote habit.
The problem wasn't that Alexa wasn't capable. The problem was that nobody had given users a reason to start.
The solution wasn't a screen. It was a system.
S T A G E 1
Getting started
Rotating hero feature · first invocation prompt
home screen
S T A G E 2
Discover
Action cards · one-click high-value features
home screen · shortcuts
S T A G E 3
Explore
Utterance carousel refreshing every visit
home screen · screensaver
S T A G E 4
Habit forming
Setup guides for music linking and smart home
shortcuts · widgets
Four stages, each mapped to defined content types and placement rules across three app surfaces.
I designed a four-stage content framework mapped to where users were in their Alexa journey, with defined content types and placement rules across the home screen, shortcuts panel, and screensaver widgets. Every new feature had a clear home — teams could drop content into the right stage without redesigning the experience each time. I was designing the infrastructure, not just the screens.
The audit. Every existing element mapped against the customer journey — showing exactly where the experience was failing.
From there: HMW exercises with the PM team, rapid lo-fi iterations, and annotated specs designed in parallel with engineering so the team could move without waiting on me.
Wireframes. From framework to designed system — each component mapped to a stage.
I started with a full audit of everything that existed, mapping each piece against the customer journey to find the gaps.
Four new home screen components, each serving a distinct moment in the discovery journey.
Stage 1 — Getting Started. A rotating hero surfaced new invocation prompts on every visit, giving users a reason to engage each time they opened the app.
Action cards put one-click access to Alexa's highest-value features front and center — no navigation required.
Stage 2 — Discover. One-click access to core features. No setup, no navigation.
The Explore carousel gave users a continuous feed of utterances refreshing on every visit. Setup guides handled the complex features — music linking, smart home setup — that needed more than a card.
Stages 3 and 4 — Explore and Habit Forming. Something new to try every visit, and guided paths for deeper features.
All four components on the live home screen — each serving a distinct moment, independently deployable.
100k+
in-app interactions within the first three weeks of launch
3
weeks to validate a modular discovery system at scale
The experience launched on Samsung TVs in November 2023. Within three weeks, new customers generated 100K+ in-app interactions — validating that contextual, modular discovery drove the engagement the old static experience couldn't. The launch established the content infrastructure for future personalization and ad placements across additional TV operators.
The best onboarding doesn't feel like onboarding.
The moments that drove the most engagement were the ones that felt like a natural part of using the TV, not a tutorial. Meeting users in the moments they were already in was more effective than asking them to take a detour.
Infrastructure decisions compound over time.
Building a framework rather than a fixed experience meant every new Alexa feature that came after had a clear home. The upfront investment in modularity kept paying as the system expanded to new devices and content types.