Purpose
This guide describes a practical command pattern for Echo Show style household portals: short spoken phrases that open useful pages, dashboards, or control surfaces without asking users to remember technical routes or URLs.
When This Guide Is Useful
- you maintain a household dashboard or portal that should be easy to open by voice
- you want a consistent naming convention for pages, commands, and room-specific views
- you need a lightweight command vocabulary before investing in deeper custom voice flows
Recommended Command Pattern
| Intent | Spoken Pattern | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Open a page | “Alexa, open My Page and show {page name}” | Launches the named dashboard, portal, or shortcut page |
| List options | “Alexa, open My Page and show settings” | Shows the available page list or navigation options |
| Open a command surface | “Alexa, open My Page and show commands” | Displays a household command reference or task launcher |
Design Rules
- keep page names short, distinct, and household-friendly
- avoid synonyms that sound too similar over voice recognition
- prefer task-oriented names such as Recipes, Devices, Commands, or Emergency over internal route language
Operational Checklist
- validate every spoken page name against the actual page title shown on the screen
- keep a visible “available pages” or “settings” view for discoverability
- re-test voice recognition when household terminology changes
- document the command list in HASMaster once the household standardizes it
References
- Alexa Smart Home Overview: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=21341307011
- Home Assistant Alexa Integration: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/alexa/
- Household Workspace: https://hasmaster.com/my-home/
- Journeys: https://hasmaster.com/journeys/