You might have noticed an ever-increasing adoption of conversational interfaces, whether in customer service situations, in financial products, or when doing something as simple as ordering flowers. As designers, it’s our job to grow and adapt to best utilize this new paradigm. This slide deck (from the June 28, 2017 event in Moment's Chicago office) covers design’s influence on the chatbot landscape and highlights tools to experiment with on your own. To find out more about Moment, please visit momentdesign.com

1. Makin’
Chatbots
@momentdesign

2. 2
Introductions
Josh Lucas-FalkDrew Gold

3. Notes
The design consultancy
redefining what lies ahead
3

4. What’s a “chatbot” anyway?
4
Chatbot time

5. 5
Messenger
Slack
Kik
Text
Contexts
Machine learning
Neural network
AI
Conversational UI
Technologies & methods
Siri
Cortana
Alexa
Google Assistant
Products

6. 6
Chat + bot
Context “Intelligent”
technology
+

7. 7

8. 8
Parameter
collector
Intelligent
interpreter

9. The intelligence part is
really hard, even for the
very biggest players.
9

17. If Microsoft, Facebook,
and Amazon struggle,
what chance do we have?
17

18. 18
The good news:
Chatbots can be successful
without passing the Turing test.

19. 19
Why?
Because you get some stuff
for free!

20. 20
Free thing #1
Interaction without interface

21. 21
Free thing #1
Interaction without interface

22. 22
Free thing #2
The context is usually familiar

23. 23
Free thing #3
The ELIZA effect

24. So, how can we build a good
product that is also a bot?
24

25. 25
Ask “Why?”
Bots are supercool, but should
yournew productbea bot?
S T E P 1

26. 26
• Are you solving a genuine user need?
• Are you replacing an existing capability already
offered in another channel? Why?
• Which parts of your organization will be impacted by
the bot, and how are the impacted?
• How will your users discover this?
• Is there a path towards user adoption?
STEP 1: ASK “WHY?”
It’s time for
product
strategy!
These are all the questions worth
asking when building any new
product/channel/capability.

27. 27
Define the intelligence
level and features
S T E P 2

28. 28
The context of “knowledge”
will drive the complexity
of your bot.
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

29. 29
Who will drive the
conversation:
The bot, or the user?
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

30. 30
The question
game
Some experiences can be reduced to questions
and answers. These sorts of bots are pretty
dumb and are very easy to build—they don’t
really need to “know” very much.
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

31. 31
The question
game
Some experiences are open-ended and
complex. If your bot is going to mimic a human
interaction, it’s going to need to “know” a lot and
it will need to learn.
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

32. 32
Parameter
collector
Intelligent
interpreter
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

33. 33
Box of
rocks
HAL 9000
simple
tasks
major
effort
more
complex
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

34. 34
What is
the value
proposition?
“My bot helps people sign up and manages news updates.”
“My bot helps devs add, track, and manage bug tickets.”
“My bot helps people shop atmy store.”
“My bot helps me track orders from my store.”
“My bot helps customers shop AND tracks orders.”
Define the bot’s scope and limits
to set expectations with users.
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

35. 35
Organize
your features
• Break down your value proposition into the
featuresthat combine to deliver a rewarding
experience
“My bot helps people shop atmy store”…How?
• How do your featuresrelate to one another?
Are there any natural groupings? Any
dependencies?
• Can these features be prioritized? Can you evolve
your chatbot over time?
Feature set A Feature set B
- Feature 1
- Feature 2
- Feature 1
- Feature 2
- Feature 3
- Feature 4
Value proposition
Prioritize features based on the
path to user adoption.
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

36. 36
STEP 2: DEFINE THE INTELLIGENCE / FEATURES

37. 37
Design your chatbot!
S T E P 3

38. An introduction to Moment 38
Scriptwriting +
testing +
edge case design +
error handling
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT

39. 39
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT
Scriptwriting

40. 40
Onboarding
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT

41. 41
Error handling
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT

42. 42
Handoffs to other channels
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT

43. 43
Take a lesson from Siri and Alexa —it’s really
difficult to craftpersonality with something
that only understands you most of the time.
?!
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT
Who is your bot?
Still…you get points
for personality.

44. 44
STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR CHATBOT

45. 45
1. Ask “Why?”
2. Define your intelligencelevel
and features
3. Design your bot
So, howcan we
build a good
product that is
also a bot?
4. (Test andlearn)
Drew Gold & Josh Lucas-Falk
@momentdesign