Design Your Skill


Designing for voice is different from visual design. Your design approach must consider voice-first interactions adapted to the way users express their intent naturally through speech. For Alexa-enabled devices with a screen, you can enhance the voice interaction with complementary visual design.

Design for the voice interaction model

Every Alexa skill has a voice interaction model that defines the words and phrases that users can say to Alexa to make the skill do what they want. For details, see About Voice Interaction Models.

If you develop a skill by using the pre-built voice interaction model, Amazon has designed the set of utterances for each skill type. Consult the Alexa Design Guide for other design considerations, such as, best practices for developing skills for children, accessibility, and in-skill purchasing.

If you build a custom skill, the first step is to design the voice interaction model. You might design a request-response dialog, use a conversational model, or use a mixed approach. For details about how to design a custom voice interaction model, see the Alexa Design Guide. The design guide offers you best practices to design the interaction model, adding visuals to your skill, add voice to apps, develop skills for children, and more.

Additional resources

Use the following additional resources to help you learn how to design an Alexa skill.

Concepts and procedures

Blog posts

Videos, podcasts, and webinars

Twitch streams


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Last updated: Apr 23, 2024