VUI design and method to support number-guessing game

In this slides, I introduce some method to design VUI (Voice User Interface) apps, for example, the number-guessing game app I have released. It also includes how to find contexts and intents from each scenario and how to draw a diagram to understand the abstract of whole conversation.

Currently, there is no tools and methods to design VUI apps. Therefore, I needed to establish own methods. I expect that developers who want to design VUI apps can use the methods as a base line.

Transcript

1. VUI design and method to support number-guessing game Yoichiro Tanaka, Google Developers Expert
2. Yoichiro Tanaka Software Engineer / IT Architect Google Developers Expert (Web) twitter.com/yoichiro google.com/+YoichiroTanaka
3. What is this? The following know-hows which I used when developing the number-guessing game app named "Bulls and Cows" for Google Assistant: • VUI (Voice User Interface) design points and devices • Methods and procedures at VUI design.
5. Happy path of Bulls and Cows
13. Design Checklist
14. https://developers.google.com/actions/design/checklist
15. Greetings and Goodbyes
16. Greetings and Goodbyes Tell users who you are. Give the right amount of information. End conversations appropriately.
17. Tell users who you are Give users an app name in the welcome message so that users can recognize what the app can be invoked. Welcome to Bulls and Cows. It is a game that guesses all three different digits. Zero is not included. Now, please say three digit numbers.
18. Give the right amount of information Give a minimum rule at first. • Informed the thing ◦ This app wants the user to say three digit number. • Not informed the thing ◦ Judge condition (n bulls, n cows) Tell users only what they wants first to do, and finish saying the Welcome Message as short as possible. Welcome to Bulls and Cows. It is a game that guesses all three different digits. Zero is not included. Now, please say three digit numbers.
19. Give the right amount of information A design which is not implemented yet: Cater your greeting to users with varying degrees of familiarity with your actions The experience of listening to "part of the rules of the game" every time you invoke the app is not good. -> You can control with app.getLastSeen() Welcome to Bulls and Cows. It is a game that guesses all three different digits. Zero is not included. Now, please say three digit numbers. I know...
20. End conversations appropriately Users can end the conversation with phrases like "bye" whenever they are in any contexts. Welcome to Bulls and Cows. It is a game that guesses all three different digits. Zero is not included. Now, please say three digit numbers. Bye The answer was 9, 5 and 3. Let's play again next time. Bulls and Cows left the conversation
21. End conversations appropriately Offer a chance which users can end the conversation when they achieve the purpose. Congratulation! You got three Bulls! Do you want to play again? 123 Bulls and Cows left the conversation No Ok, Bulls and Cows is finished. Let's play again next time.
22. Conversation Repair (Error Handling)
23. Prevent errors by expecting variations Handle two expressions users are going to say for the "please say three digit numbers". • "One hundred and twenty three." → 123 • "One two three" → 1 2 3 Both is a three digit number. 1 bull and 0 cow. One hundred and twenty three. One, two, three. 1 bull and 0 cow.
25. Provide helpful reprompts or pivot to another question Users may give up when they take mistakes many times. -> The user never invoke the app again because of the difficulty. 1 bull and 0 cow. 123 456 789 1 bull and 0 cow. 1 bull and 0 cow.
26. Provide helpful reprompts or pivot to another question Ask whether want to hear a hint when the user takes mistakes three times. • Avoid teach the hint without the user's opinion. • Present a feeling that the app is worried about the user's many mistakes. • By helping to achieve the purpose (= navigate to the correct answer), let the user a success experience as possible. 1 Bull and 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? 789 The sum of three digit numbers is 16. Yes
27. Provide helpful reprompts or pivot to another question There shoud be users who continue the game ignoring the suggestion of providing the hint. -> Predict behaviors of users in advance, provide an experience to be able to continue the game. 1 Bull and 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? 789 1 Bull and 0 Cow. 123
28. Conversational Dialogs
29. Sound natural It's a conversation, is not a auto-answer of call-centers. -> An important thing is believing users. • Thrusting to say fixed phrases to users brings sounds un-natural. • Simply, should say "Do you need ... ?". 1 Bull and 0 Cow. You can get a hint by saying "Hint" anytime. Hint 1 Bull and 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? Yes
30. 1 Bull and 0 Cow. You can get a hint by saying "Hint" anytime. Hint 1 Bull and 0 Cow. You can get a hint by saying "Hint" anytime. 789 Hint The sum of three digit numbers is 16. [Should avoid] The implementation is simple, but the conversation is absplutely mechanical. * Rounded corners are Context, Rectangles are Intent.
31. [Should do] The amount of the implementation increases, but can bring sounds natural. 789 Hint 1 Bull 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? 1 Bull and 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? Yes Yes The sum of three digit numbers is 16. The sum of three digit numbers is 16. I see. Please say three digit numbers. 1 Bull and 0 Cow I didn't understand well. Please say three digit numbers. No 123 ??? * Rounded corners are Context, Rectangles are Intent.
32. Sound natural Prepare multiple phrases for one reply message. • Don't provide unnatural sounds as possible. • The number of the valiations is 3. The more, the better. • Currently, the output phrase is selected by random. Actually, it is necessary to find a way not to select the same phrase continuously. Congratulation! You got three Bulls! Do you want to play again? Great! You got three Bulls! Do you want to play again? You got three Bulls! Wow! Do you want to play again?
33. A message resource file.
34. Tools and Procedures for Design
35. Tools for Design Currently, most nothing's tools for VUI designing. • Many companies and communities are finding a way. Many tools might be provided from now. • We don't have any tools, but we need some tool to design VUI apps. It is necessary to find some method by own (or refer to recommendations on Actions on Google)
36. My method 1. Write scenarios. 2. Find contexts. 3. Draw navigation between contexts. 4. Find intents, and add them to the context navigation. 5. Apply each dialog before and after each intent.
37. 1. Write scenarios
38. Color alternate rows in Google Spreadsheet in advance. Convenience!
39. Happy Path
40. Play again
41. Help
42. Hint
43. Mistakes three times
44. 2. Find contexts
45. 2. Find contexts Search for a place where the theme of the conversation changed. Then extract before and after change as "context". • "Listen to a three-digit number, and answer the judgment result" • "After answering correctly, ask whether play again one more time" • "After three mistakes, ask whether want to hear the hint"
46. Happy Path - The theme changed from "Now, gaming" to "Ask whether plays again" -> The context changed.
47. Help - Heard the help in "Gaming", but the theme not changed from "Gaming". As the result, the context is still "Gaming".
48. Mistakes 3 times - By mistaken 3 times, the theme changed to "Asking to hear a hint". That is, the context changed.
49. 3. Draw navigation between contexts
50. "Now gaming" "Ask whether play again" "Ask whether want to hear a hint" Can understand an abstract of the conversation stream by drawing navigation between contexts.
51. 4. Find intents
52. Happy Path - "I take a guess of three digit number" = "input.numbers" , "Specify that I don't play again" = "play_again.no"
53. Happy Path - The "input.numbers" intent changes a context (from "game" to "play_again")
54. Hint - "Hear a hint" = "help_hint" intent
55. Mistakes 3 times - The "input.numbers" intent also changes a context to "hear_hint"
56. 4. And add them to the context navigation.
58. 5. Apply each dialog before and after each intent.
59. Ex: Insert intents and apply dialogs between the "game" context and the "hear_hint" context. 789 Hint 1 Bull 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? Yes The sum of three digit numbers is 16. The sum of three digit numbers is 16. I see. Please say three digit numbers. 1 Bull and 0 Cow I didn't understand well. Please say three digit numbers. No 123 ??? * Rounded corners are Context, Rectangles are Intent.
60. Mapping to Dialogflow
61. 789 1 Bull and 0 Cow. Do you need a hint? 1 Bull and 0 Cow Congratulation! You got three Bulls! Do you want to play again? Training phrases Input context Output context Output context Output context Response Response Response
63. Actually, Fulfillment is necessary A fulfillment is called from each intent. -> The fulfillment determines the following: • Output contexts • Response In the area of VUI design, it is unnecessary to include a fulfillment, because the fulfillment is for implementation.
64. Conclusion To fill the design checklist is important. There is no design tool and procedure established now. The flow may be better: Scenarios -> Contexts -> Intents -> Navigation -> Dialogs -> Implementation Don't need rich tools. To start a design, use Google Spreadsheet first!
65. Appendix
66. dialogflow-query-checker This is a checker tool to validate a result phrase against each query sent to the Dialogflow. https://github.com/yoichiro/dialogflow-query-checker
67. Botsociety.io Create a dialog mock up rapidly. Can export the video and generate code. Publish this mock up for testing. https://botsociety.io
68. Fin.