Few Guidelines To Follow While Designing The Conversations…!

Hey guys,

After designing and re-designing conversations for quite a few numbers of chatbots across various domains, here are the few guidelines (based on research and observations) which you may consider while you design conversation for your chatbot.

1. It’s necessary that you create a chatbot that is specialized and purpose-driven. As a single system may not be able to handle all the tasks by the user. 🤖
2. It’s good to provide users the hints as they can take an unlimited number of paths to achieve their goal. A quick guide to the users of what they can expect from the BOT, how can they use it, what it can’t do etc.
3. Do not ask open-ended questions. As these create more confusion and increases the complexity of the system.
4. It is necessary that you use real-world conventions than system-oriented terms. Also please keep in mind that your users must feel they are talking to the humans and not the Bots. 💃
5. It is also necessary that the vocabulary that you use must resonate with your users. This helps them to make the conversations that follow a natural flow. 😎
6. User control and freedom are the most important factors to be considered. Here you need to provide the users with the emergency exit, and also the undo, redo, and cancel features etc depending on the domain you’re working on. 😻
7. Here you can also provide the option to reset the conversation at any point of time during the conversation. It helps the users to revert and start a new search from scratch. 🕵️‍
8. It is very much important that you prevent the error that takes place, in prior. 🙅

For example, It is necessary that you make sure that the answer is appropriate and then move to the next step in case it is correct. In case it is an inappropriate data, you need to explain the type of answer that you’re expecting. This can provide the users with a smooth journey and a wonderful experience.

9. It is necessary that you must be flexible and efficient in your conversational designs. It must be equally easier to use by both the expert users and the inexperienced ones.

10. Instead of asking users multiple questions at once, request the information from the user one by one.

11. It is necessary that you maintain consistency with your conversations throughout. It is important that the different words, situations, or actions do not mean the same thing.

12. You need to verify if the bot designed is human enough or not. This can be done by testing with a large number of users and get proper insights from them and implement them in your system.

13. Too much information or too many options may make the conversation go away from the correct path and lead to a no-solution state.

14. It is necessary to keep the conversation on track as chatbot has its limitation, using buttons as quick replies and providing clear call-to-action helps user awareness of what to expect.

15. The conversation will sound more human with the use of non-lexical words such as hmmm, oh, oops etc.

16. It’s important to anticipate users needs and provide the right solutions with minimum user effort. So do not try to design your system to do everything at once.

17. Users may not know that some functionalities exist unless you tell them, so it is important to guide the user to start the conversation.

18. Help messages and suggestions for when the user feels lost, never leave the user dangling.

The user experience (UX) is one of the vital factors that contribute to achieving customer satisfaction that leads to business success.

THANKS FOR READING. HOPE YOU ENJOYED..!