Overview & Problem

Baking is messy and time-sensitive. Switching between wet hands and a phone or laptop causes missed steps, misread amounts, and poorly timed actions. BakeBot is a hands-free, voice-first assistant that reads and clarifies steps, manages multiple timers, and handles common conversions and substitutions.

Voiceflow diagram or branding for BakeBot

Goals

  • Hands-free guidance: step navigation (“next/previous/repeat/define”), pace control.
  • Built-in helpers: conversions, scaling, substitutions, temperature cues.
  • Parallel timers: named timers (e.g., “rest”, “bake”) with quick status checks.
  • Concise dialogs: short, actionable responses with confirmations on critical values.

Interaction Model

Intents

  • Navigating steps; summarize current step; request definitions.
  • Set/modify/cancel named timers; check timer status.
  • Convert/scale quantities; suggest substitutions with trade-offs.

Slots

  • ingredient, quantity, unit, temperature, duration, tool, step index.

Dialog Policies

  • Confirm on critical values and when ASR confidence is low.
  • Prompt for missing slots; keep replies brief with next actions.
Flow snippet: intents, slots, and dialog paths

Voice Flow

1) Home
Voice Flow — Home screen
2) Recipe Recommendation
Voice Flow — Recipe recommendation
3) Recipe Implementation
Voice Flow — Recipe implementation / guided steps

Usability Testing

Round 1

  • Responses too verbose; users wanted shorter prompts and explicit next actions.
  • Confusion when slots missing—needed more resilient recovery prompts.

Round 2

  • Standardized units/rounding for clarity.
  • Added named timers and quick status queries (“how long on rest?”).
Read R1 Notes Read R2 Notes

Iterations

  • Trimmed response length; added “You can say…” suggestions after each critical step.
  • Introduced named timers and summary status responses.
  • Clarified conversion/scale outputs with exact amounts and rounding notes.
  • Hardened recovery for low-confidence ASR with confirm/re-prompt patterns.

Risky Interactions & Mitigations

  • ASR in noisy kitchens: keep utterances short; confirm critical values; easy corrections (“actually one and a half cups”).
  • Parallel tasks: named timers + distinct alerts; quick summary on request.
  • Substitutions: provide best option plus trade-offs; avoid long choice lists.

Deliverable

Built in Voiceflow with multi-intent dialog, slot elicitation, confirmations, and timers.

Open Slides Open Voiceflow

Demo Video

Future Work

  • Recipe import and step parsing; richer substitution knowledge.
  • Personalization (skill level, preferred units, dietary constraints).
  • Optional IoT integrations (read-only timers first; controls later).