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Adobe XD: Feature Requests (Read-Only): 02 : Prototype mode

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Can't export prototype to Alexa Preview (skill) if [space] used for speech playback on first art board

In order to export an Adobe XD prototype to Alexa Preview, the first artboard must contain actual content; an empty space will result in export error. This is a new issue as previous exports have accepted a single space as content.

I wasted several hours trying to address this. My exhaustion to figure it out on my own led me to leave a 1-star rating on Amazon for the XD skill, a phone call to the Adobe support team, rescheduling a client meeting and lost wages.

My feature request:
Make export error handling better and more descriptive.

Explicit indication that something has gone wrong. The very worst error messages are those that don't exist. When users make mistakes and get no feedback, they're completely lost. Email, for example, offers several situations where explicit indication would be useful. Such as: When you send a message that gets eaten by the system and never reaches the recipient. Another good example? When you state in an email that you'll include an attachment, but forget to do so. Finally a job for that annoying paperclip: "You seem to want to attach a file to this message, but you have not done so. Would you like to attach one now?"
Human-readable language, instead of obscure codes or abbreviations such as "an error of type 2 has occurred."
Polite phrasing that doesn't blame users or imply that they are either stupid or doing something wrong, as in "illegal command."
Precise descriptions of exact problems, rather than vague generalities such as "syntax error."
Constructive advice on how to fix the problem. For example, instead of saying "out of stock," your error message should either tell users when the product will be available or provide a way for users to ask to be notified when the product is restocked.

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Shawn Kelshaw shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →

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  • Shawn Kelshaw commented  ·   ·  Report

    I can respect your position. As Product you need to constantly evaluate the value-add opp vs. the overhead (cost and time) to support and produce features. As designers we have to be familiar with device limitations and Alexa Show (or whatever device/generation) should be no different. The exercise that led me to report this issue was essentially exploratory despite presenting it as a design concept for a legit client. I've learned a lot through the exercise and appreciate your dialog. You guys are doing well and I for one appreciate the effort of the entire team.

  • AdminMark Webster (Adobe) (Admin, Adobe) commented  ·   ·  Report

    It's tricky. Trying to stay synced with different devices over time is nearly impossible to do, as they're moving so quickly. And voice/speech in XD is used for much more than just device-specific projects, so we keep it as free-form as possible (much like how the visual capabilities in XD are independent of any specific platform or device).

    Animation is a good example. When we first built the integration, Alexa didn't support animations at all. Around the same time as our launch, they just introduced some basic animation capabilities. Mapping XD's auto-animate options to Alexa would take a ton of engineering effort, probably wouldn't work to well, and would continually change/break with no warning. As of right now, our team doesn't have plans to support animation in Alexa (though a third-party developer could build a plugin that does this if they wanted to.)

    Supporting new/emerging media definitely isn't easy, but XD is committed to continually finding ways to bring designers capabilities they haven't had before. There's bound to be hiccups, but we're trying our best ;)

  • Shawn Kelshaw commented  ·   ·  Report

    Thanks for the reply and information Mark. I think some of my disconnect also extends to the "previewing" a prototype inside XD. You can include a space for the voice playback and preview the experience inside XD just fine.

    Suggestion:
    XD previewing should mimic device rules.

    Dependencies:
    Adobe XD would need user to identify targeted device
    Adoeb XD would need to stay current with device rules from one generation release to the next

    On a side note:
    I've noticed tween animations do not display on the Alexa Show. Is this an intentional limitation on the device itself, a bug or an XD feature to be released later on?

    Thanks again Mark.

  • AdminMark Webster (Adobe) (Admin, Adobe) commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hey Shawn, sorry to hear this was causing you problems.

    Amazon Alexa requires a speech response to be delivered alongside a visual response, hence the requirement that there is a speech playback action on each artboard. When you don't have a speech playback action on every artboard and you attempt to export, we show a message that says "Amazon Alexa requires speech playback for each visual response sent to a device. Make sure each artboard in the prototype has a speech playback response."

    However, if you add an invalid response (like space, $, &, etc), we are showing a generic export error message. We should definitely improve that messaging, and I've added this to our backlog.

    I'm not sure why adding just a space ever worked. It shouldn't have. I looked back and we added that validation back in June, pre-launch. And yep, I just tested across mac and Windows, and confirms that it isn't working and shows the error.

    Apologies again for any issues this caused...

    -Mark