Chatbot
A computer program designed
to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.
There are two ways
Rule-based approach
This is a static approach (relatively) to the creation of chatbot, wherein there is a pre-fixed set of rules that act as guiding parameters, based on which the bot responds to user input (queries, etc.). Depending on the requirement, these rules can range from simple, to very complex. This approach, however, does have drawbacks that may affect user experience, if applied in a wrong way. Although this is the more straightforward of the two approaches, there is a lack of efficiency in the overall functionality of the bot.AI-based approach
This approach
enables the bot to be more dynamic in its responses, as well as functionality.
The process itself is much more complex as compared to the above, as it
requires that the chatbot is connected to an AI. The driving forces behind this
approach are advanced data analytics, API (Application Programming Interface)
integration, and the subsequent machine learning that takes place. In this way,
the bot is able to learn dynamically, and modify its working (responses) in order
to provide a more efficient, personalized user experience.
Understand AI
To
effectively design a chatbot, you’ll also need to understand artificial
intelligence. This will help you identify any limitations of the technology,
and will help you avoid coming to a roadblock while you’re actually designing
the bot. Besides identifying its limitations, you may discover possibilities
you didn’t know of— something that’s always helpful. However, be careful not to
dive in too deep— the world of AI is extremely vast. As a matter of fact, every
designer should be updated about the technology and platform they are designed
for.
The Design Thinking Process for Contextual Chatbots
1. Scope and Requirements
- Try to ask why you need a chatbot and if so, then which category do you need your platform?
- Know what the business is asking from your chatbot.
- Define problems.
- User Personas.
- Be very specific about what the chatbot can offer
- Understand the limitations and opportunities of the platform which will be the home for your chatbot.
- Know that contextual chatbots are not potential enough to handle every potential customer interaction. Hence, list down specific sets of use cases first.
- Answer to the Questions, is it going to be the first touch of new user landing in your platform? Is it better suited for every onboarding user to respond to common support queries?
- Research more about the use cases by interviewing the expected end-users for the platform. We can do a rapid interview using contextual inquiry to understand real-time conversations between the bot and the user.
2. Define Sample chat flows
After this,
it’s necessary to define the flow of the chat in the bot. This step is actually
one of the most important ones, as it defines how the bot will interact with
humans. You could create as many scenarios as possible depending on the scope
of the bot; this particular process will help you define the key terms that bot
will take into consideration before replying to the user's query. It is
actually a good idea to spend a lot of time on this step to get close to
defining the experience for your users.
3. Experience Mapping — Know your characters and their behavior.
·
Having clarity about every use-case is one of
the simplest practices a chatbot creator must undertake to avoid deeper
problems later. We create experiences mapping to understand the following
parameters:
·
Notice the similar customer inquiries or needs
that occur frequently
·
What is the limited range of potential outcomes
for the user’s requirements? How fast can the user enjoy the rapid response,
which is typically short transactional conversations?
·
To realize what value of a chatbot will bring to
the end-user so we can reference it throughout the design process.
4. Build Conversation and Intelligence
Build a Chatbot
Character — A chatbot is nothing but sheer imagination of your platform who will do
the most crucial job of collecting the user’s intent. One needs to understand
the customer’s personas and craft a compatible chatbot counterpart to keep the
users engaged with them. Select
a tone for the chatbot and build the whole persona around it as
a personality is not only a way to engage the users and create empathy but it
is also an easy way to reduce the number of topics and words that will be used
in the interaction. For example, should users perceive your chatbot
as female or male? Is the chatbot young or old? Is it casual and friendly with
lots of emojis or formal and polite? Do your chatbot answer almost curt
responses or does it compose lengthier sentences?
Set up the dialog flow
— One needs to keep the following pointers in the head before starting to
write the conversation script between a bot and the user.
An example of Chatbot Conversation
Flow Scripting.
1.
User Requirements — List down all the user’s requirements and stick the
conversation around those pointers only.
2.
Dead End — Prevent the user to get stuck in the dead-end of the conversation.
5. Understand chatbot UI Elements and Prototype
Before writing the entire
script for the chatbot, one needs to find out all the chatbot UI elements.
There are several platforms like Facebook, Telegram which can help you with the
chatbot templates and UI components for building out a classic chat experience.
6. Usability testing of chatbots
·
Get Screen Recording of a user’s interaction and
analyze
·
Test on different platforms — Mobile and web
application.
