Creating the Google Assistant's Danish Personality
Role: Conversation Designer & UX Writer
In 2018, Google expanded their Assistant across various markets, primarily in EMEA. Their aim was for the Google Assistant to feel like a local companion, providing helpful information and delighting users as they integrated it into their daily routines. My focus was on conversation design and UX writing- crafting a unique personality for the Danish market.
Ahead of the Danish Assistant's launch in September 2018, I was tasked with creating a consistent persona, including jokes, facts, poems, easter eggs, and quirky responses. Although it was advised to source content externally, this proved to be rather challenging in Denmark. Instead, I had to create most of the content from scratch. This subsequently led me to conduct a UX joke-writing workshop for other writers (see below).
Upon launch, media coverage highlighted not just the functional features like weather reports and music connections, but also the Assistant's personality, including its ability to recognize colloquial phrases and cultural references.
Key Features & Achievements
Songs:
Collaborating with sound engineers, I wrote new lyrics to the tunes of famous Danish children's songs. This feature became the most requested and liked within the Danish market.
Give Me a Superpower:
I created a feature which generated random, humorous superpowers. Working with other writers, we piloted it in Britain, Germany, and Denmark, where it quickly became a top feature in Northern Europe. It was subsequently rolled out across EMEA.
Seasonal Campaigns:
To boost user engagement, I created seasonal content for holidays and events. The highlight was the 2018 Christmas advent calendar, which gained 60,000 views in 25 days.
Joke-Writing Workshop:
The workshop focused on the basic UX construction of jokes and how to use local idioms as easy tools to form original punchlines. I am aware that the Assistant’s jokes are notoriously bad- but I still dream about my own space in the Dad Joke Hall of Fame.
Making a King Laugh:
One of my proudest moments at Google was seeing the King of Denmark laugh at one of the responses I had created. Sadly, I couldn’t be there in person, but colleagues captured the moment at a conference.
Following the launch, Danish YouTube stars Niki Topgaard and Alexander Husum created engaging videos with the Assistant, leading me to develop specific responses and easter eggs for them. This continues to be a highlight, securing my place as a favorite uncle to my nephew and nieces back in Denmark.