Mental Timers
We’re really bad at keeping time. Our sense of time can be affected by our attention, mood, and exposure to different substances. Computers are great time keepers.
This is why one of the killer apps for voice is timers. It’s easy to set them by voice and have them remind us.
However, there are a few instances where they tend to cause an issue:
- We create a longer timer and forget about it.
- We set multiple timers but forget what they’re for
Echos and Homes can work around the issues in a few ways:
- Provide a visual cue to remind the user there’s a timer
- For longer timers (1 hour+), provide a notification of how much time is remaining
- Provide the timer reading through a companion app
- In instances where there is more than one timer close to another, force the naming of the second timer (e.g. the pasta)
This makes the time keeping even more effective.
