There's a bot for that

In the last few years this world went crazy for sure. My apologies, this talk won't be about pokemons, although I have some thoughts to spread. It feels like everyone nowadays is into speaking and writing about conversational interfaces and building chat bots, stating that this is what's our future. But how do the end users perceive it? Are the chat bots at least a little useful? What are the use cases for the conversational interfaces? Are there any technical or user experience challenges in building a chat bot?

Transcript

1. There is an app for that @pukhalski a bot
2. @pukhalski
3. - Prerequisites of chatbot-boom - What is chatbot? - Where do they inhabit? - Possibilities - Conversational UX - Bot as a product
4. Mobile is dominating
5. Users spend most of time in apps
6. Most of time in messengers
7. Messengers > social networks By MAU,
8. Multichannel -> Omnichannel
9. New channels grow fast
10. New channels grow fast
11. New channels grow fast
12. New channels grow fast
13. What is a chatbot? In heaven, it's all they talk about, the bots ...
14. Chatbot a computer program which conducts an intelligent conversation with one or more human users via auditory or textual methods.
15. Eliza aka “Tell me more” bot, 1966 ME: Jesus. ELIZA: Tell me more about that.
16. Alice aka “Dodge a question” bot, 1995 judge: Hi. What do you know about AI? ALICE: Hi there! I'll come back to that later. judge: When exactly? ALICE: Time does not exist. judge: Okay. Tell me more about JavaScript ALICE: I see. Are you a man or woman?
17. SmarterChild aka Sex Bot, 2001
18. Watson aka “Bullshit” bot, 2010
19. Microsoft Tay, 2016
20. Microsoft Tay aka “Heil!” bot, 24 hours after
21. Chatbot a computer program which conducts an intelligent conversation with one or more human users via auditory or textual methods
22. Habitats of the chatbot - Standalone - Dedicated native apps - SMS-based - Web-based - Over the top (OTT)
23. OTT chatbot platforms
24. OTT chatbot platforms, if you know the tricks
25. Technical possibilities do really differ for each of the platforms
26. Custom keyboards, suggestions, reply options
27. Sharing location, contact
28. Rich templates - Buttons - Receipts - Airline-related - Itinerary - Checkin - Boarding Pass - Flight Update
31. Audience somehow differs from platform to platform
33. Why does Microsoft, Facebook and others so heavily invest into chatbots?
35. Lumia sales drop constantly
37. Bot is an app inside an app Today’s chatbots don’t pretend to replace humans, they pretend to replace some apps.
38. Conversational UX Chat is a natural interface, although it's the most difficult to design
39. Conversational UI is a spoken or written way of interacting with a device.
40. Conversational UI - almost no or no UI - no need to teach how to use - works everywhere OOTB - low-bandwidth - censorship hole
41. UX principles for conversational UI
42. Onboarding - state clearly about what bot does and what it doesn't - always offer "help" command - onboarding message should not take more than one screen of text #1
43. Users always desire a bot to be as clever as a human, if it, at least, tries to hold a conversation #2
44. It's ok for the chatbot to be dumb Conversation is not a necessary feature
45. Utilize the power of hybrid conversational interfaces. Templates, buttons, keyboards, media #3
48. If your bot pretends to be as smart as a human, make sure it actually is #4
49. Otherwise switch to HI instead of AI Or make a mix of both
50. Ton of voice and personality do really matter #5
53. We do lot of misspells and mistypes Arguably, we type like shit #6
55. User context matters Remember the data about the user Show menu if it’s possible #7
56. Good bot as a good app is single-purpose Don’t try to make a swiss knife out of it #8
57. Bots have a limited number of use cases Same as mobile apps do #9
58. We've learned so far - Bot !== AI - Most of the bots are useless - Tech possibilities are limited - User expectations are high - Bots won't disappear - Good conversational UX is challenging
59. Chatbot Ecosystem
60. The bot economy is growing faster than the app economy did Source
61. Discoverability of chatbots is still an issue Bot stores, QR-codes, landing pages and links
62. Official bot stores
63. Official bot stores
64. Official bot stores
65. Unofficial bot stores
66. Messenger has no store yet The only possibility to discover a chatbot is to google it or go to an unofficial bot store. “Installation” via direct link or QR-code.
67. Submission Review Process …or content control is rare
68. Bots need platform and device integrations In-bot payments, contacts, calendar, accelerometer, location…
69. Baby steps… Telegram: location tracking, contacts Messenger: payments (US beta via Stripe)
70. Bots need to be extendable …in terms of hybrid UI
71. Telegram Gaming Platform 1.0
72. Messenger Webview Extensions Embeds SDK into a webview
73. Still lack of tooling and infrastructure
74. Still lack of tooling and infrastructure
79. Building a bot without coding is like cooking with a playset
83. Bot is a product
84. Analyze UX Visualize Code Test Release
85. Analyze UX Script Code Test Release
87. Chatbots become a part of omnichannel business model It’s time to start thinking about your bot strategy