Chatbot designing at present is often compared to what web designing was during the 90s. It has become a trending frontier with a huge scope in the future.
The arrival of chatbot prototyping tools has made it easier to prototype your unique ideas, making it a booming industry in terms of technological development. Now is the right time, if you would like to enter into the designing world for conversational interfaces.
Before you begin designing the chatbot, there are a few things that you must keep in mind:
- Make every word meaningful
Chatbots are supposed to be conversational just like we humans talk to each other. So it will make sense to give every word spoken by a chatbot a meaning.
A good chatbot relies on not just words, but meaningful words. The ‘meaning’ here doesn’t refer to just the dictionary meaning. While conversing with a human, the words used by a chatbot must essentially be representing the bot’s functionality or personality or both.
Also, the single message from the chatbot must not be crowded with words. 50-200 characters per message are considered to be ideal while designing the chatbots. The reason behind this is that it takes user’s interest away if the machine is talking too much, which often led to diminishing the clarity of the concern. Also, if a user knows that the chatbot is concise enough to provide clear responses in the limited words, it will take less of the user’s time, giving them an ultimate user experience that your chatbot is expected to give.
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Chatbot developers can take the help of copywriters or UX writers to give a clear and direct voice to your chatbot which will be in-line to your brand’s personality.
On a side note, give special attention to the spellings. Typo errors instantly ruin the chatbot’s credibility and user experience.
- Being at par with the User Flows
As compared to any other digital platform, being at par with the user flows is more essential for the chatbots. Why so? Because chatbots have the minimal user interface to provide the optimal user experience. Hence, chatbots cannot avoid or neglect the final user flow.
While on the web interface, users take their time in playing around with the interface before reaching to the final task. This is not the same for the chatbots. A single yet small mistake can cause the loss of a user for your chatbot.
If you are unable to organize the design structure of your chatbot and are occupied with multiple thoughts, try focusing on finalizing the user flows on priority. It is often confusing to reach the final design of your chatbot’s identity, but it is better to develop that after you have designed solid user flows.
Also read: What Chatbot can do for your business?
- Giving an Individual Personality to your Chatbot
Once you are done with finalizing your user flows, it’s time to infuse personality in your chatbot. Start by giving a good name to it (if you haven’t given already) and don’t hesitate to uniquely characterize it.
If your bot gets a distinctive tone and identity, it will bring higher and deeper engagement from the users. This unique personality of your chatbot will let your users feel emotionally invested, making your chatbot memorable and charming.
Try to replace the generic words in your chatbot vocabulary with some exciting and out of the line words which will make your bot’s character stand out among others. However, make sure that the personality of your chatbot doesn’t overshadow its functionality due to the words. Clarity is the most essential trait of chatbot design.
Also, remember that you can’t please everyone as no person is universally likable. Just add a little spark to your chatbot’s personality which makes it unique from the ones that are generic. Such extraordinary personality will be memorable and will echoes in the mind of the users for providing the most humanly possible experience.
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- Words aren’t enough
Why can’t chatbots text in emojis and memes, when we humans can? Simple text conversation is the foundation and universal language when it comes to chatting or texting, and it is applicable to the chatbot too. But it doesn’t have to be the only way your chatbot speaks.
Your chatbot should be able to use visuals like pictures, GIFs, infographics, and CTA buttons as they will be more clear and memorable in conveying messages to the user. The chatbot mock-up tools will let you insert images and buttons into your user flows, and the ability to speak visually will make your chatbot outshine the generic traits, giving a unique personality to it. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Conclusion
As you are planning to begin your chatbot design journey, we hope that these basic tips will help you make your chatbot stand-out among the crowd. Remember, that it is possible now to prototype and test your chatbot with the help of many tools. So go ahead, embark your journey, dive into the world of chatbot design, and make the best of this trending feature that is changing the ways users get to contact businesses and industries.
