Chatbot designing is a new frontier of conversational user interfaces. While designers have been creating graphical user interfaces for many years, conversational user interfaces are uncharted territory that still needs to be explored in depth.
The UX design process for chatbots includes defining the purpose of the chatbot and other design considerations that need to be factored in to create a successful user experience.
Chatbot UX is a software that mimics a conversation with a real person via text or voice. These chatbots can be used for several different purposes - such as product recommendations, to book movie tickets, to order food, etc.
Instead of navigating several different screens and buttons to find the answers they need, users can simply ask the bot a question and get their answer.
These kind of conversational interfaces, give customers another touchpoint by which they can easily get in touch with the company. These are a useful way for companies to create rapid, helpful customer interactions. This is a major reason that many companies have adopted chatbots.
Thus we can conclude that chatbot design is the practice of creating a program that can interact with customers in a conversational tone. It gives the bot a personality or a voice by which to understand the customers problems and empathise with them.
Every chatbot design process has the following steps;
- Define what your chatbot will do
- Shape your chatbot’s personality
- Build out effective scripts to create conversations
- Monitor and iterate based on performance
But these steps all have various steps and processes under them as well.
So what are some things that designers need to keep in mind while imagining chatbot system design and what are some of the new thing that they can adopt? We discuss them in this blog.
1. Learn as much as you can about the platform
There are two ways in which designers can design a chatbot - either within the constraints of an existing platform or from scratch for a website or app.
Designing a chatbot that is plugged into a company’s website or mobile app gives designers the freedom to create a completely customised branded experience. From custom buttons, to colour palettes and to other components, designers can focus on creating unique UI solutions that meed specific needs and also ensure that brand guidelines are followed.
But there are also several benefits of creating chatbots through existing platforms. These platforms offer ready-made elements and therefore can be put together more quickly.
However designers are limited by the platform and the kind of design elements that are available.
Whichever platform designers decide to go ahead with, they will need to take the time to understand the capabilities, limitations and opportunities of the platform they’re working on well before starting the design process. It’s also important to be realistic, and balance project aims with design constraints.
2. What is the purpose of the chatbot?
Every design process needs to begin by identifying the purpose. Chatbot UI UX designers need to begin by identifying the value a chatbot will bring to the end user and then refer to this purpose through the design process to make sure that they aren’t deviating from the purpose. It’s here that UX designers add great value in framing the scope of the project through user-centred design techniques, such as research and ideation.
3. Choose a personality
Give your chatbot a personality so that the interaction between the chatbot and the audience feels more warm and personal. Users prefer that the bot’s responses be warm and human rather than cold and robotic.
Choose a clearly defined tone of voice to provide consistency in the bot’s responses.
Trends in Chatbot Designing
- Better use of machine learning
- Messenger chatbots like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp
- Human-like chatbots
- Convenient problem-solving
- Advantageous virtual assistance
- Growing popularity of voice based apps
What is the future of chatbots?
More and more organisations are integrating chatbots within their platform as a part of their marketing efforts. They are understanding that chatbots have the potential to improve customer service with easy communication, instant responses and 24/7 service.
Chatbots are poised to revolutionise both business and our daily lives.
Like any high-tech solution, chatbots have received their share of skepticism. However, they have developed to the point where companies saw in them a cost-effective way to automate some tasks that only humans could perform previously. Many businesses are now using chatbots for customer interactions. Chatbots can answer simple questions, resolve complex issues, or provide other services 24/7. Designing chatbots requires a big shift in the way designers think about these new interfaces. Though designers have a wide range of tools and skills at their fingertips, they must adjust their perspective in order to adapt to the shift and strive to improve their competency with conversational interfaces.