# Alexa+ UI Design Patterns for Smart Displays

> Research compiled Feb 2026 from Amazon official sources, The Verge, CNET, PCMag, Android Central

## 1. Key UI Patterns

### Home Screen / Dashboard Mode
- **Personalized home screen** that adapts based on user, time of day, and proximity
- **Visual ID** (facial recognition via 13MP camera) — recognizes who approaches and personalizes the display (your calendar, your smart home favorites)
- **Proximity-aware UI**: Shows larger fonts/info when you're far away, detailed widgets when close
- **Ambient brightness adaptation** via ambient light sensor
- **Content rotation**: Home screen cycles through widgets, photos, suggestions, weather, calendar events
- **Home Content Categories** toggle: Users can enable/disable content types (recipes, news, shopping suggestions, etc.) via Settings > Display & Appearance > Home Content Categories

### Conversation Mode (Alexa+ AI Interaction)
- **Voice-first, screen-second**: Conversation transcription appears on-screen during voice interaction
- **Visual aids**: Alexa+ shows pictures, videos, recipe cards, or product images as contextual visual responses
- **Multi-turn conversation**: Follow-up questions without re-saying wake word; conversation context maintained
- **No persistent chat window**: The conversation UI appears as an overlay during interaction and returns to dashboard when done — it's NOT a chat app
- **Suggestion chips**: When idle, Alexa+ can display "things to try" suggestions on the home screen

### Smart Home Dashboard Mode  
- **Full-screen smart home dashboard** accessed via Menu > Smart Home or voice ("Alexa, open my smart home dashboard")
- **Derived from Echo Hub interface** — grid of device controls with room switching
- **Map View** integration — visual floor plan layout of devices (from Alexa Map View feature)
- **Camera feeds** inline — view Ring/security camera live feeds directly
- **Home/Away/Night modes** — single-tap to change home state
- **Device status at a glance** — lights, locks, thermostats, cameras all visible

### Media/Entertainment Mode
- **Media control center**: Dedicated browsing pages for music, ambient sounds, podcasts, books
- **TV & Videos experience**: Aggregated content from multiple streaming providers
- **Full-screen video playback** for shows, recipes, video calls

## 2. Color Schemes and Typography

### Visual Design Language
- **Clean, modern aesthetic** — described as "cleaner, sleeker full-screen UI" (The Verge)
- **Dark backgrounds** with bright accent elements for widgets (typical of ambient displays)
- **Adaptive brightness** — screen adjusts to room lighting automatically
- **Photo-forward**: When idle, displays personal photos from Amazon Photos as ambient wallpaper/slideshow
- **Card-based UI**: Information presented in distinct card/widget containers with rounded corners
- **High contrast readability**: Font sizes scale based on distance (proximity sensor)

### Typography
- Amazon's custom typeface family (Amazon Ember)
- **Large, glanceable text** for time, weather, calendar — designed to be read across a room
- **Smaller detail text** when user is close/interacting
- **Bold headers** for widget titles, lighter weight for content

### Color Palette (observed from press images)
- **Background**: Dark navy/charcoal or photo wallpaper
- **Widget cards**: Semi-transparent dark cards with white text, or light cards with dark text
- **Accent colors**: Alexa blue (#00CAFF-ish), warm amber for alerts/reminders
- **Smart home controls**: Color-coded by device type (warm yellow for lights, blue for locks, etc.)
- **Conversation UI**: Blue gradient for Alexa responses, lighter for user transcription

## 3. Widget Types and Layouts

### Available Widget Types (Echo Show 15/21 + new Echo Show 8/11)
- **Clock/Time** — large, always-visible
- **Weather** — current conditions + forecast
- **Calendar** — daily/weekly/monthly views, multi-calendar family support
- **Smart Home controls** — quick-access device toggles
- **Camera feeds** — live view from Ring cameras
- **Shopping list** — editable list
- **To-do / Tasks** — task widget (coming soon as of late 2025)
- **Reminders** — upcoming reminders
- **Music/Now Playing** — currently playing media with controls
- **Photos** — Amazon Photos slideshow
- **Timers** — multiple cooking timers visible simultaneously
- **Recipes** — personalized recipe suggestions (coming soon)
- **News/Headlines** — rotating news content
- **Sticky Notes** — personal notes
- **Skill widgets** — third-party skill mini-views
- **Personalized notifications** — follow-ups from recent conversations

### Layout System
- **Grid-based widget layout** — widgets snap to a grid
- **Resizable widgets** — can be expanded/collapsed
- **Drag-and-drop rearrangement** — long-press to enter edit mode
- **Widget Gallery** — swipe down from top to access available widgets
- **Different layouts for different screen sizes**:
  - Echo Show 8 (8.7"): 1-2 widget columns, more compact
  - Echo Show 11 (11"): 2-3 widget columns
  - Echo Show 15 (15.6"): Full widget panel, landscape orientation, wall-mountable
  - Echo Show 21 (21"): Largest canvas, most widgets visible simultaneously
- **Left panel + right content**: On larger screens (15, 21), widget sidebar on left with main content area on right

### Widget Interaction
- **Tap to expand** — widgets open to full-screen detail view
- **Swipe left** on widget pane handle to access rearrangement
- **Voice-addressable** — "Alexa, show my calendar" opens calendar widget full-screen

## 4. Conversation Interface Behavior

### How It Appears
1. **Wake word trigger** ("Alexa") — blue animation ring/bar appears at bottom of screen
2. **Listening state** — screen shows blue animated waveform/indicator
3. **Processing** — brief thinking animation
4. **Response** — text transcription of conversation appears; visual content (images, cards, lists) shown alongside
5. **Multi-turn**: Screen stays in conversation mode; displays ongoing transcript
6. **Suggestion follow-ups**: After response, may show tappable suggestion chips

### How It Disappears
1. **Conversation ends** (timeout or "thank you") — UI fades back to home screen
2. **Gradual transition** — conversation results may persist briefly as a notification/widget
3. **No chat history** visible on home screen — it's ephemeral
4. **Results persist contextually**: e.g., if you asked about weather, the weather widget may be promoted to prominent position

### Visual Treatment During Conversation
- **Overlay model**: Conversation takes over most of the screen but feels temporary
- **Blue accent theming** during active Alexa interaction
- **Cards/results** appear with smooth animations
- **Shopping lists, recipes, timers** created during conversation persist as widgets after conversation ends

## 5. Home Dashboard vs Chat App — Design Philosophy

### What Makes It Feel Like a HOME DASHBOARD:
- **Ambient-first**: Default state is glanceable information, not a conversation thread
- **Photo wallpaper**: Personal photos rotate as background — feels personal and decorative
- **Widget grid**: Calendar, weather, smart home status visible at a glance — like a family command center
- **Proactive, not reactive**: Shows relevant info (upcoming events, weather changes) without being asked
- **Environmental awareness**: Uses presence sensors, temperature, ambient light to adapt
- **Family-centric**: Visual ID recognizes different family members, shows personalized content per person
- **Physical space integration**: Smart home controls are front-and-center; the device is about controlling YOUR space
- **Always-on display**: Designed to be glanced at throughout the day, not actively used continuously

### What Makes It NOT a Chat App:
- **No persistent conversation history** on the display
- **No text input by default** (keyboard available for accessibility but voice is primary)
- **Conversation is ephemeral** — appears and disappears with the interaction
- **No message threads or bubbles** — responses are full-screen cards, not chat bubbles
- **Content-forward**: After a conversation, the RESULT persists (timer, reminder, shopping list) not the conversation itself
- **The display returns to ambient/dashboard mode** — chat doesn't persist as the primary view

### Key Design Principles:
1. **Glanceable over readable** — information hierarchy favors quick scanning
2. **Voice-first, touch-second** — primary interaction is voice; touch is supplementary
3. **Contextual intelligence** — UI adapts to who's looking, time of day, what's happening
4. **Ambient computing** — the device fades into the background of your home, activates when needed
5. **Family hub** — shared device, personalized per user, central to household operations
6. **Proactive assistance** — surface relevant info before being asked (upcoming event, package delivery, missed routine)

## 6. Screenshot URLs and Visual References

### Official Amazon Press Images
- About Amazon Echo Show guide: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/getting-started-echo-show-8-11-alexa-plus-features
- New Alexa+ features overview: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-alexa-generative-artificial-intelligence

### The Verge Hands-On Photos
- Smart home dashboard on Echo Show 21: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/IMG_2557.jpeg
- Echo Show UI with widgets: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/IMG_2564.jpeg
- Shopping list UI: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/shopping-list.png
- Full article: https://www.theverge.com/news/621008/hands-on-with-alexa-plus-smart-home-echo-show-21

### Android Central Widget Customization Screenshots
- Echo Show 15 widget gallery: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mcx9KfDjTDnTyTWVygkk73.jpg
- Widget pane expanded: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/WivGCjDJhDdAA3FYWeJFPW.jpg
- Widget rearrangement: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fChVCpuYSsEDewQUpxb3QQ.jpg
- Widget customization: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5B84ngX2GzNqRsdy33aUua.jpg
- Full article: https://www.androidcentral.com/how-customize-alexa-widgets-amazon-echo-show-15

### Review Articles with UI Photos
- CNET Echo Show 11 review: https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/this-smart-display-is-the-best-add-on-my-kitchen-has-ever-had/
- PCMag Echo Show 8 (2025) review: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/amazon-echo-show-8-4th-gen-2025

## 7. Technical Framework Notes

### Alexa Presentation Language (APL)
- Amazon's visual design framework for building interactive voice+visual experiences
- Supports responsive layouts across different Echo Show screen sizes
- Developers can build custom visual skill responses using APL
- Reference: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/alexa/alexa-haus/alexa-presentation-language

### Device Specifications (for UI design reference)
| Device | Screen Size | Resolution | Orientation |
|--------|------------|------------|-------------|
| Echo Show 5 | 5.5" | 960×480 | Landscape |
| Echo Show 8 (2025) | 8.7" | 1340×800 | Landscape |
| Echo Show 11 (2025) | 11" | 1920×1200 | Landscape |
| Echo Show 15 | 15.6" | 1920×1080 | Landscape (wall-mount) |
| Echo Show 21 | 21" | 1920×1200 | Landscape (wall-mount) |

### Key Hardware Features Relevant to UI
- **AZ3 Pro chip** with AI accelerator — enables smooth transitions, multitasking between voice and visual
- **Omnisense presence sensor** (ultrasound + Wi-Fi radar) — fine motion detection for proximity-aware UI
- **13MP camera with Visual ID** — facial recognition for personalization
- **Ambient light sensor** — adaptive brightness
- **Ambient temperature sensor** — can trigger routines

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## 8. Key Takeaways for KIPP

1. **Dashboard-first, conversation-second**: The display should feel like a home information hub that happens to have AI conversation capabilities, not a chatbot with a screen
2. **Ephemeral conversation UI**: Conversations appear as overlays and fade back to dashboard — results persist, conversations don't
3. **Widget grid system**: Modular, customizable cards that users arrange to their preference
4. **Proximity awareness**: Different information density based on distance from screen
5. **Visual ID / personalization**: Per-user customization is key to making a shared device feel personal
6. **Ambient mode is the default state**: Photos, clock, weather — the device should be beautiful when idle
7. **Proactive intelligence**: Surface information before being asked — upcoming events, deliveries, routine changes
8. **Voice-first interaction model**: Touch/visual is supplementary to voice
