Writing dialogue

Chatbots in B2B have their function. People visit such websites for a particular reason, because they want something. It’s like going to a restaurant or entering a bricks-and-mortar shop. Of course, sometimes people do it because they have nothing better to do or they just want to amuse themselves, but generally — there’s some purpose behind it; ordering food, buying a pair of shoes, or learning about prices. On the flip side, a waiter or a shop assistant also have their tasks and scripts to follow when talking to a client. A conversational website can work exactly the same way, and a chatbot’s role can be similar to a shop assistant or a waiter.

When designers work on websites or applications, we think about the visual hierarchy we should assign based on user goals and needs. If we do it wrong, users become distracted by other less relevant elements, and become lost on the journey to complete the task for which they first came to our website.

With a chatbot, the process is not different. What varies here is the set of UI elements used: text, cards, images, emojis and quick replies. Initially, these elements may seem a bit limited, but they are more than enough to make users want to chat with your bot.

When designing a product for the web or mobile world, we usually operate within certain types of interactions and user interface elements — text fields, forms, buttons, checkboxes, or switches, for example. In the chatbot world, the interface elements are different.

So, after you come up with lots of ideas about the magical things your bot might be able to do, it is time to get “down to earth” and balance your goals with the design constraints of the platform.

At their simplest, design principles are a list of strongly-held opinions that an entire team agrees on. They force clarity and reduce ambiguity, and represent a north star for everyone to aim for.

Always have a human fallback option, allowing the user to express “I’d rather wait and talk to a real human, make this robot thing go away”.

Start with defining key user intents that you believe your chatbot will encounter and the ones you should support. The scope is key here. Carefully define what you should cover and what you will not.

Every interaction with your bot does not have to be conversational. Some interactions are better with Graphical UI than with Conversational UI.

Researchers have proven that humans tend to anthropomorphise machines in a natural way. That’s why investigating the structure and process of social interaction between humans can enable better conversational interfaces.

Make sure you pay close attention to the language and vocabulary your chatbot uses to interact with users, as well as the info you can convey in association with the messages it sends — your chatbot’s “fist”, or meta-messaging. The UX design choices you make here will shape your user’s perception of its persona, which sets the tone for the entire interaction.

It may sound far-fetched, but remember that people are neurologically hard-wired for the rapid onset of boredom when repeatedly exposed to the same stimulus — so it’s this element of unpredictability in your chatbot’s linguistic repertoire that’ll keep your customers engaged.

Creating a consistent voice: We started with a high level voice guideline with personality. As mentioned, we tested different tones from more human to more bot-like. We found that sounding robotic increased efficiency. People had a lower expectation of what it can actually understand. When the bot sounded too smart and too much like a human, people pushed its limits by saying things that had nothing to do with a request.

Building trust: People will learn to trust the bot if it’s consistent, accurate, looking out for them, responsive, transparent, and smart. Biggest hurdle is a smart AI, but it’s not the only trust signal we need to design for. Sentence structure, images, context, and nagginess all are design problems.

Immediately provide some value or utility to the user. This drastically increases the likelihood that the user will continue to use the bot and not just forget about it. No one wants to answer 5 questions without knowing what they’re going to be getting.

You’re never done tweaking your bot, look at conversation logs and see how users are responding, come up with a small change and try it out.

Taking turns with short responses, like any good conversation, keeps customers engaged and holds their attention better. While a paragraph of text may be quick to skim and read, the nature of voice interaction is linear — you can’t skip around the way you can with a piece of text, and long, complex sentences can overload the user. If responses are too short though–such as a simple “yes”–the conversation becomes too mechanical. Finding a balance and testing different phrases that align with the persona is key here.

We all love stories. We’re born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present and future, and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined.