Sure, please provide me with the PO number and I'll check the status for you

UX Design GuidelinesProject Management Utterance & Intent Building
Copyrighted material. © 2019 Botpress Technologies, Inc.
Chatbot Project
Guidelines

Content
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2

Project management
3

- The task is very complex
- The task requires a large form to be filled
in and it would be easier to use a
different interface
- The scope is too wide
- The target audience does not use chat
based systems
- The task is done relatively infrequently
- The user is likely to forget how to use
the app in between using it
- The time and memory resources
required to download/build an app are
not justified
- The first line of support for answering
queries can be introduced to reduce the
load on support agents/admin staff
When is a chatbot the best solution
Enterprise applications
4

Gathering
Requirements
2 weeks
Scoping of the
bot
2 - 3 weeks
Installation &
Setup
1 week
Develop
Chatbot
3 - 6 weeks
Monitor & Analyze
4 - 8 weeks
Production
1 week
Test (UAT)
2 weeks
Test & Reﬁne
2 - 4 weeks
What is a typical chatbot project
timeline
5

How to Scope the chatbot - 1
Purpose
What problem is it
solving?
How will it solve the
problem?
Potential beneﬁts?
Target users?
Channels
Where are your
users?
(Webchat, Mobile
App, Telegram,
Slack, SMS,
WhatsApp, etc.)
Languages
Which languages are
required for your
audience?
Multi-lingual?
Use Cases
What will your bot
help a user with?
Functionalities?
Tasks?
(e.g. workﬂows, give
information)
6

How to Scope the chatbot - 2
Q&As
What information do
your users want?
Frequently Asked
Questions
Integrations
Which internal
systems and 3rd
party services
integrations are
needed?
Add HITL for an
agent to take over if
needed
Visuals &
Conversational
Script
What is the image
and voice of your
brand?
Bot persona
Success
Metrics
How will you track
the added
value/success?
7

Utterance and intent building
8

What can the NLU engine do
Intent Recognition
Recognizing what
the user wants,
based on the
utterances entered
for each intent/Q&A
item
Entity Extraction
Extracting structured
information from
messages like dates,
cities, names,
specific patterns
(e.g. employee
codes) and more
Slot tagging
Identify the extracted
entities that are
necessary
parameters to fulfill a
given task
Language
Identification
Knowing in which
language the user is
writing
9

Intent Recognition
Entity Extraction
Slot tagging
"I want to book a meeting room" book_meetingroom 0.98
"Who can I contact for HR queries?" faq_hr_details 0.82
"Book a ﬂight to London" airports London
"Book a ﬂight from USA to London" airport_from, airport_to USA, London
What are examples of Intents,
Entities and Slots
Airports: list of airports
10

Type When to use Typical use cases
Training data required
for use as slot
Built-in entities When the entities are
common and supported
built-in.
See supported entities Utterances of the slot
(minimum 10
recommended)
List
Created by collaborator
When the list is deﬁned,
static and not too large.
Countries, Major airports,
Cities, Flavors, Types of
coffee, Menu items, etc.
The complete list with
synonyms and
Utterances of the slot
(minimum 10
recommended)
Pattern (Regex)
Created by collaborator
When you have a
discernable pattern in the
alphanumeric string, for
example employee number:
BP10987 (Suﬃx “BP”
followed by 5 numbers)
Employee Numbers,
Purchase Orders, Invoices,
Tickers, Securities
Utterances of the slot
(minimum 10
recommended) and the
regular expression
“Any” slots* (no linked
entity)
When lists are Dynamic lists
or lists that are too large.
Lists that are too large or
changes too often, e.g.
Surnames.
Requires 5 to 10 times more
utterances than other types.
* We recommend to only use “any” slots as the last resort. Try using the other 3 types if possible.
When to use different types of entities and slots
11

Hi, I’m John Smith, and I want to check the status of invoice BP102029, right now!
Entity (list):
Employee_name_list
Slot: None
Entity (pattern):
Invoice_number
Slot: Invoice_number
Entity (System):
Date and time
Slot: None
Intent: check_invoice
Entities are always extracted across all intents. If
the entity exists in the bots knowledge it will
always be extracted by the NLU engine.
Entity
Slots are only extracted when they were tagged
and are useful for the resolution of the intent.
Slot
In summary, an entity is a type used to ﬁll a slot.
What is the difference between an
Entity and a Slot
12

Type Name your intents with Examples
QNA / Query query_[topic]_[attribute]
“query_library_location”,
“query_peer_email”
User Goal goal_[verb]_[noun]
“goal_book_flight”,
“goal_order_food”
Provide information / slot
filling
“provide_[context]_[slots]” “provide_ein_credentials”
Affirm something, like a
choice or a fact
“affirm_[group]”
“affirm_mood”,
“affirm_yes_no”
How to name your intents
13

Here the intent will be mostly dependent on the
presence or not of the word hobby, i.e. it will overﬁt on
the hobby keyword.
Here the intent will be ﬁtted to the concept of a
hobby. Down time, favorite pastime, leisure activities
and free time are all used as synonyms of hobby.
Try mixing utterances by using synonyms
14

Intent: Reset Password
natural
language
keyword
only
* A keyword-only utterance, is an utterance that looks a lot like a typical search engine query.
Try mixing natural language utterances
with keyword only* utterances.
15

* There are 3 slots to fill in this example: Email or Employee number and service.
Try mixing utterances with the slots*
completely filled, partially filled or empty
Completely
Filled
Partially
Filled
Empty
Intent: Reset Password
16

Here the algorithm will
“overﬁt” on a speciﬁc
slot order, i.e.
ticket_type,
from_airport and
to_airport
Here the slot extractor,
will not be “thrown off”
by different syntaxes
and slot order.
* Three slots are used in this example: ticket_type, from_airport and to_airport
Try mixing the positioning of slots* in
the sentence
17

✔
❌
❌
❌
18
Use diverse, user-generated utterances
NLG Don’t use NLG to generate low-quality training data.
Doing so will only confuse the engine and require a lot more training time.

UX/conversation design
guidelines
19

Try mapping the 3 possibilities when
users respond
What kind of pizza would
you like to order?
Hmmm, bbq chicken if
possible?
What’s available? Actually I want a burger
Pepperoni
Here the user will provide either
the answer straight up or answer
through a sentence.
Here the user will ask a related
question, before answering the
initial question. This is usually a
temporary detour.
User wants to changes ﬂows,
either changes his intent or
wants to cancel completely.
I would really like it to be
all-dressed please.
It depends, what do guys
have on the menu?
Toppings list
Nevermind
Cancel!!
20

What kind of pizza would you like
to order?
It depends, what do you guys have on
the menu?
What kind of pizza would you like to
order?
The carnivore pizza looks amazing! I’ll
have that.
Try to proactively prevent common
misunderstandings and clariﬁcations
Pineapple +
Ham
Beef + Ham
+ Turkey
Mushrooms
+ Beef
Pineapple +
Ham
Beef + Ham
+ Turkey
Mushrooms
+ Beef
21

Good morning John, I’m Kendra the
Purchasing Expert. How can I help?
Create new PO Verify PO Status
Good morning, I would like to veirfy a PO
satus.
Here the user did 3 things unexpectedly:
- ignored the buttons
- added some “ﬂuff” words and
- made several spelling mistakes
Could be rectiﬁed by creating a robust intent:
“verify PO status”
“Don’t assume users will press the buttons”
Account for bad user input and don’t
assume user behavior
22

I’m so sorry, PO# BP002092 is not a valid
purchase order number for that account,
can you double check?
OHHH, my bad it was actually BP002029!
Here the user inverted the 9 and the 2 and
submitted to the DB, which caused a DB error.
If there was no “on failure” option the bot
would just not answer by default, which is a
very bad user experience.
The system queries the required database
and it invalidates the PO#.
The PO # is BP002092 and the email I
used was denis@botpress.io
Account for action failures and always
create an “on failure” option
23

Don’t add a superfluous step when there is no
consequence, in this case this causes bad user
experience.
Do validate information, when there is a consequence,
in this case the 50$ fee.
Validate inputs when there are consequences
to entering erroneous information
What’s the flight status of AC7845?
OK, you want to check flight status of
AC7845, correct?
Yes
Flight AC7845 from Quebec → Montreal
AC7846 (YQB-YUL) departs in 2h and
boards in 90 minutes.
I’m not going to make it to my flight, can I
change to AC7846 please?
Are you sure you want to change your
AC7845 flight to AC7846?
There’s a 50$ fee.
Yes
24

Don’t wipeout sessions completely.
Don’t set expiries that are too quick.
Don’t give access to sensitive and conﬁdential
information, when the users comes back.
Do keep track of the past conversations and
ask if the user wants to continue.
Do set appropriate times to expiry.
2 hours elapsed, user returns
Account for users “timeout”
Session Expiry
What is your Employee Number (EIN)?
Hello
Hello again! Last time we spoke, you
were busy applying for leave.
Would you like to continue?
Yes, continue No thanks
25

I have booked flight AC2029 from Quebec
to Toronto. I sent a confirmation to
denis@botpress.io. I am thankful for your
confidence today!
I have booked flight AC2029 from Quebec
to Toronto. I sent a confirmation to
denis@botpress.io. Is there anything else
I can help you with today?
Here the user still has another goal for the conversation,
but the bot assumed that the conversation was over.
The user might be left to think he has to restart a new
session.
Ok perfect, I am thankful for your
confidence today. I hope to see you again
soon John.
Here the user has the occasion to pursue with the
interaction, leave or answer no. In this interaction we
are certain the user has accomplished all his goals for
the interaction.
At the end of a conversation, always
propose to do something else
I also wanted to check my rewards
program total.
No
26

Create a feedback loop to ask if the
solution was useful
You can click here to see all the for the
Returns Policy.
Where can I get details about returns?
You can have a look at the website for
details
Where can I get details about returns?
Was this information helpful?
Do Give the user the opportunity to indicate
whether or not a given solution was helpful.
The feedback can then be used to increase the
accuracy of the bot.
Don’t assume the user is satisﬁed.
Don’t provide the user with a vague answer.
27

William Henry Gates III (born October
28, 1955) is an American business
magnate, investor, author,
philanthropist, and humanitarian. He is
best known as the principal founder of
Microsoft Corporation.[2][3] During his
career at Microsoft, Gates held the
positions of chairman, CEO and chief
software architect, while also being the
largest individual shareholder until May
2014.
Bill Gates was the world’s richest
individual, mostly known for starting the
company Microsoft and for his
philanthropy.
If it doesn’t ﬁt in a tweet it shouldn’t
be in your bot
Who is Bill Gates? Who is Bill Gates?
28

Do write as you would speak.
Do use the ﬁrst person “I”, it is more personal.
Do use clients name if possible and “you” in
other cases.
Do use and active voice.
Don’t use a passive voice. It is considered
cold and robotic.
Don’t use the third person, it is impersonal.
Make sure you use active voice and
ﬁrst person
Good morning John, I’m Billy Pro.
Botpress hired me because I know a lot
about the Enterprise Edition.
How can I help?
Register account Technical Support
Good morning John, welcome to
Botpress Pro. What would you like to do
today?
29

- Do use folders to group similar use-cases
- Do stay consistent in flow-intent mapping such as goal_ etc
- Do each flow should do only one thing
- Do make the flows simpler so you get the opportunity to reuse the components
How to structure your flows
30

When the bot fails...
Fallback #1
Connect with a human.
If available, this provides
the best UX.
Fallback #2
Prompt the user to
create a ticket.
This will let the user
know his issue will be
taken care of.
Fallback #3
At the minimum you
must always track a
failed interaction and
give paths for
improvement for the bot.
Always have a fallback for when the
bot fails
31

Always give the option to “start over”
You can restart the conversation at any
time.
Later in the conversation
Reset the conversation
Hi John, welcome to Botpress Pro. What
would you like to do today?
You can restart the conversation at any
time by typing “start”.
Later in the conversation
start
Ok sure, you will lose all your
information. Are you sure you want to
start with a new conversation?
Do give a clear option to start a new
conversation.
Do give a warning if there are
consequences.
Don’t let the user wonder how to do a certain
action.
The conversation has been reset
32

Do use personal information to personalize the
experience (if available)
Do personalize the greetings to time of day
(morning, afternoon, evening)
Do use the welcome screen and ﬁrst message to
convey how the bot might help them
Don’t use conﬁdential information from past
sessions
Don’t let the user wonder what to do next
How to onboard a new user, and
start conversations
Good morning John, welcome to
Botpress Pro. How can I help you today,
registering an account or support?
Register account Technical Support
Hi John, the last time we spoke you
requested a new card for account nr
103449886.
33

- Graphical interface is mostly superior to a text interface
- Buttons, widgets, and other UI elements can speed up or enhance the conversational
experience
- It is quicker to click than type (especially on mobile)
- A graphical interface allows the user to see what options are available
Text VoiceUI elements
Use the richest UI elements available
Messages, Hyperlinks,
Quick Replies
Sounds (Success &
Failure), Intonation
Images, Videos, Menus,
Dropdowns, Carousel
34

Utterances: Various sentences used to indicate a same intent.
Intent: Goal and intention of an user in a conversation.
Entity: A parameter or object that adds speciﬁcity to an intent.
Slot: An extracted entity, that is used in the resolution of an intent.
NLU: Natural language understanding is a branch of AI which
understands and interprets text in a usable format for computers.
HITL: Human-in-the loop, the process of handing over a conversation
started with a chatbot to a human agent.
Glossary
35

Sure, please provide me with the PO number and I'll check the status for you

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