ECHO FIRST GENERATION

The first generation Echo was the first mass market AI device used in the home. Alexa and a voice first UX meant that the device needed to blend into the home. The most common placement was the kitchen or living room so the CMF design was tailored to blend into these spaces. The stainless steel finish was important and I needed to get right to match to fit with most commonly trending kitchen appliances. A real metal was not possible due to the antennae interference needed so a paint was necessary to achieve the look.

 

To move forward on my internal goals of developing sustainable CMF. I worked closely with the advanced materials team to develop a waterborne paint system that was equivalent to the common system. It was developed to remove VOC toxicity in the paint compound and application. Due to to the minimal waste water treatments the total paint system and layers became more cost effective then the VOC paint which made it a huge success. This paint system became standardized for all Amazon painted programs shortly following.