Released in time for Christmas 2015, Mattel’s Hello Barbie was an internet connected fashion doll that offered children sustained, interactive  conversation using a push-to-talk mechanism.  Mattel’s answer to the age-old children’s dream of being able to talk to their dolls and have their dolls talk back, the doll featured hours of conversational content—over 10,000 lines recorded by the Barbie voice actress and nearly 20,000 handcrafted rules—on subjects ranging from school, family, games, fashion, careers, pets, and more.

 

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My first project upon joining PullString (then ToyTalk) in February 2015, was as part of the 3 person team tasked with designing and implementing all conversational content for Hello Barbie using the company’s proprietary conversational design software, PullString Author.  I authored scores of individual conversational modules including Princess Wardsbackia, My Silliest School Day Ever (a Mad Lib), I Want to be a Scientist, and Word Tag. Additionally, I designed the overall conversational flow of the doll and created the Hello Barbie “Neural Net” to manage and optimize the ongoing conversational experience. My team worked closely with the brand and innovations teams at Mattel in all stages of development.  Our workflow included check ins, approval loops, as well as general design and conversational subject matter sign-off.