---
title: "Alice and smart speakers: the research contribution to launch"
description: "Contributed to launching the Alice voice assistant and smart speaker line through full-cycle UX research at Yandex’s UX Lab."
date: 2026-10-27
lang: en
translationKey: "alice"
translationStatus: machine
kind: project
name: "Alice and smart speakers"
period: "2017–2018"
role: "UX research contributing to product launches"
status: "Contribution to team product launches"
tags: ["research", "AI"]
related: []
sourceUrls: ["https://ux.shipulin.md/cv#shipped"]
canonical: "https://shipulin.md/projects/alice/"
---

A conversational interface makes the familiar question of product clarity particularly concrete. In a graphical interface, a person can see buttons and labels. With voice, they also need to understand how to start a conversation and what to expect from a reply.

At Yandex’s UX Lab, I contributed to preparing the launches of the Alice voice assistant and the smart speaker line. In 2017–2018, my part in the team’s work on these products was UX research.

## From interface to interaction

My laboratory work during that period included interviews, usability studies and behavioural research across Yandex products. For Alice and smart devices, I contributed through full-cycle UX research.

The full cycle connects framing a question, obtaining evidence and interpreting it for the team. Naming a method is not enough: it needs to be clear which uncertainty the method is meant to address.

Voice interfaces illustrate why this matters. The clarity of a phrase, a person’s expectations and their opportunity to continue interacting form a single journey. An individual phrase can be understandable on its own while the opportunity for the next action remains unclear.

## My role in a team outcome

My contribution consisted of UX research supporting preparation for launch. The launch itself involved many disciplines. For a researcher, the useful connection is between a question about interaction and the team’s discussion of the product.

A research perspective connects individual interactions to the person’s task: what they are trying to do, how they understand a reply and what they can do after receiving it.

## Where the subject continued

Later, I worked on [trust in AI answers and follow-up conversations](/projects/trust-in-ai-answers/). That is separate work in a different product context. The connection is a research interest in how someone understands a system’s possibilities and continues interacting with it.

The voice-assistant work remains part of that path: from examining individual interface elements to studying a complete interaction with a product.

## Sources

- [Public account of my contribution to Alice and smart speaker launches](https://ux.shipulin.md/cv#shipped)
- [Public professional chronology](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexeishipulin/)