Duxiaoxiao: A New Generation of AI Digital Assistant

Designed by Baidu Meux - Dou Shen and Yujie Shi

Traditional AI assistants have typically interacted with users through voice, an experience that often lacks authenticity. However, Duxiaoxiao, with its digitalized human appearance, takes this interaction to a new level. The designers envisioned an AI assistant that could provide natural, emotional companionship to users through digital, face-to-face communication, while still maintaining traditional voice interaction. The result is a more immersive experience of acquiring structured information and knowledge, adaptable to a variety of application scenarios.

What sets Duxiaoxiao apart from other AI assistants is its human-like qualities. Through AI technology, Duxiaoxiao possesses thinking, expression, emotion, and learning abilities akin to a human being. As it communicates with users, it gradually develops different personalities and constantly understands users’ preferences. This anthropomorphic interaction offers a relaxing experience of acquiring structured information and knowledge, and an emotional interactive companionship to users.

The realization of Duxiaoxiao was a feat of technology and design. The designers created vivid expressions, motions, and words for Duxiaoxiao, enabling it to communicate with users like a friend. This was achieved through the combination of AI technology and Web 3D engine that balanced the performance of a variety of devices. The app was designed using Sketch, Protopie, and Adobe Effect to make Duxiaoxiao fluent and attractive.

One of the most significant challenges the designers faced was creating the human-like interaction. They built an AI digital human interaction system that integrates various forms of human-computer interaction and AI technology. This enabled Duxiaoxiao to have anthropomorphic thinking, expression, emotion, and independent learning ability.

Duxiaoxiao was given a fully responsive design over multiple screen sizes of Android and iOS-based mobile devices. The project started in January 2020 and debuted in China in July 2020, and is still ongoing. The design team, based in Beijing, China, conducted extensive research, including questionnaires, user interviews, and desk research to collect user requirements of virtual assistants and the problems of existing products.

In conclusion, Duxiaoxiao is a groundbreaking AI digital assistant that offers a unique, emotional interactive companionship to users. Its human-like qualities and abilities, coupled with its innovative design, make it a deserving winner of the Silver A' Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Award in 2021.