Discussing UX design for AI chatbots can be complex, especially when considering it's a User Experience specifically designed to carry a human-like conversation or interaction.
As Conversational AI evolves, it’s key to building AI-based products with user-driven experiences that guarantee customer satisfaction.
That’s why today we’ll discuss the main edges you should consider to ensure a good UX when designing your AI chatbot!
What is Conversational UX?
Conversational User Experience (UX) refers to combining mediums, such as chat and voice, to allow Artificial Intelligence to have natural conversations with users.
This area has been greatly influenced by breakthroughs such as voice-based virtual assistants, as they allow users to interact directly with AI in human-based conversations.
As a result, this two-way communication between users and machines allows interactions with technology in real time. Moreover, there are some key points about Conversational UX:
- Conversation Mimicking: Conversational UX aims to replicate the logical flow and style of a real-person conversation, making interactions with technology feel more familiar.
- Channel Combination: As mentioned, Conversational UX combines several forms and mediums of user communication, including chat, voice, and other interfaces.
- Improved UX: Conversational UX plays a critical role in improving User Experience, allowing users to access information and achieve their intended goals faster.
Conversational UX is becoming more relevant in several industries, including Customer Support and Service, as well as AI-based e-commerce experiences.
By harnessing Conversational UX, businesses can provide users with more personalized and efficient products while improving user and customer satisfaction and engagement.
The AI Chatbot UX Design Process
Designing the User Experience of an AI-based Chatbot must consider several edges, as they’re advanced techs that allow communications between users and trained algorithms.
To sum it up, a chatbot is a computer program that uses Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing NLP to understand user questions and provide automated answers that simulate a human conversation.
While these may be seen as a distant concept, daily-used products like LinkedIn and Gmail use it! They’re also used in virtual assistants like Google Home, Siri, and Alexa.
Yet, as tech-savvy as the concept of a chatbot may be, it’s also important to consider the combination of Artificial Intelligence and UX Design when designing a chatbot to guarantee intuitiveness, responsiveness, and UX/UI Design accessibility for all users.
Let’s dive into what steps to follow to ensure a flawless Chatbot UX and Chatbot Interface Design!
AI Chatbot Design Process
1. Personality
Just like there’s a close relationship between User Experience (UX) and Branding, there’s also a close one between your Chatbot User Experience and its tone of voice.
A good practice is to develop a sort of User Persona for your bot, adding even a portrait for your bot to boost further the idea of a “person” having a conversation.
If you’re working on the Chatbot UX Design for an EdTech-related project, your bot could be a soft-voiced teacher or a cartoon with a playful voice and easy-to-understand language.
2. Activation
Within AI-driven Software Development, activation experience refers to how users start each interaction with a digital product.
You may recognize this concept in voice-based interactions when users recognize different triggers for different products, such as Apple’s “Hey Siri” or Google’s “Ok Google.”
When defining your Chatbot UX, you must ensure users know how to start interacting with your chatbot— define an intuitive and easy-to-use trigger!
3. Access
How are users more likely to interact with your chatbot? Well, the answer depends on the different ways they have to access it.
If your chatbot is on the website of a FinTech institution, such as a bank, they may be looking to get information about interest rates, options, and limits.
With those variables considered, you may want to add starting points such as "I want to get a quote," "What are your loan options?" and "How much can I borrow from the bank?"
4. Context
Here, the context is to the environment in which a chatbot operates, including not only user needs but also the steps in the user journey in which they use different types of chatbots.
The context includes the several landing pages or screens from which users may encounter your digital solution in both first interaction and recurrent use.
Let’s say you run an e-commerce website. Interactions with a chatbot should be different depending on both the first screen users interact with and the workflow they follow!
AI-based chatbot interactions will not be the same if a user lands directly on a product’s page than if they land on the homepage and search for a product themselves.
As you may have guessed, this edge requires a solid knowledge of both wireframing and prototyping to ensure user needs and goal achievement are taken into consideration.
5. Scripts
When designing your Chatbot User Experience, you should consider as many conversation flows as possible, highlighting user requirements and how they may be accustomed to interacting with digital devices.
If you’re designing the Chatbot UX for a map-based product, consider variables like places, times, and traffic, as well as questions like "How much traffic is there on the way home"?
Contrariwise, if you’re designing a chatbot for an online newspaper, you should consider the ease of access to all your articles, understanding that while a user may ask about key political events within a week, another may wonder about sports scores.
Conclusion
As you may know, the UX Design process considers particularities from product to product, such as industry, audiences, and main goals to achieve.
Yet, there are some main procedures all digital solutions should consider, such as transparency, simplicity, accessibility, optimization, and inclusion.
Chatbot Interface Design and Chatbot User Experience are no exception when it comes to UX/UI Design best practices, so make sure to consider them in your next project!
