The document discusses the design and development of smart chatbots, emphasizing the importance of user-centered design, simplicity, and the integration of messaging functionalities. It highlights key principles for creating effective bots, such as avoiding overly human-like attributes and focusing on reliability while providing value to users. Additionally, it outlines common pitfalls to avoid and offers resources for further reading on chatbot design and functionality.

1. Writing your first
smart chatbot
Ajay Viswanathan, Software Engineer - Sigmoid
@MonadicNomad

2. Machines should work,
people should think
- Jim Henson

3. Human Communication
• Complex - subtext, sarcasm
• Rich - body language, gestures, intonation
• Evolved over millennia
• Higher dynamic range of expressions

4. Online Communication
• Stripped of any emotion
• Hacks like Emoticons, Emoji, Gifs
• Shorthand, lingo, buzzwords - underline the basic
human need to be conveyed efficiently

5. Messaging today
• Rich media - audio, video, images, ¯_(ツ)_/¯
• Async
• Easy to consume on the go
• Informal tone
• Always connected

6. Why Messaging Apps might
take over native apps
• Next evolution in messaging apps - building
functionality into them
• Apps are bulky, discoverability and maintaining
them is an issue
• Trend is to shift towards consistent interactions
• Apps have taken note and started moving out of
their silos and becoming integrable services

7. Your UI is your product’s
humble compensation for not
being telepathic
- @mortenjust

8. Why the sudden Bot
uprising?
• Preceding advancements in Machine learning,
Natural language processing, scalable computing,
massive API ecosystem, improvements in
messaging and notification systems

9. What is a Bot?
• The future of web design according to some
• A program to simulate conversation, to
• Find information
• Connect to resources
• Learn keywords
• Think about responses
• Bot != Conversational AI (not necessarily)

10. What makes a great
bot?
• Adds value of some kind
• Requires minimal input/direction
• Reliable, robust like standard software
• Relieves stress for humans
• Anticipates needs of users

11. Design principles
• Not Being Human - don’t try too hard to make them appear human. They can still
have a personality
• Keep it simple in functionality - Bots need to walk before they can run
• Be as smart as a puppy - Be endearing enough when failures occur and keep
learning
• Optimize for end-user and messaging medium
• Always have a human fallback mode
• {Structured input + Retrieval response} > {Freeform input + Generative response} -
We at not an acceptable reliability level for the latter
• Use feedback analytics and keep improving the user experience

12. Common pitfalls
• Don’t attempt to replace tasks better done by a human
• Don’t add a feature just because it is cool. It needs to
have business value
• Don’t keep winding conversations - anything more than
2 exchanges is a drag
• Avoid rhetorics, be neutral in tone
• Always have a “shut up” command for the bot

13. Before starting to develop a
Bot
• Define objectives
• Choose a domain/knowledge base for the Bot
• Select an appropriate personality
• Personality is often tied to domain
• Challenging medium because it is limited to just text
• Copywriter is king
• The future “UI” designer may never need to write HTML,
CSS rather be a comedian or literature major

14. Helpful tools
• Prototyping - Twine
• NLP - IBM Bluemix Watson APIs, NLTK, ScalaNLP
• Bots - Hubot, BotKit
• Client APIs - Slack, Facebook Messenger, Google
Hangouts

15. Simple architecture
• Raw input — Lexical parser —> Structured input
• Structured input — Functionality —> Domain
output
• Domain output — Persona —> Richer output
• Richer output — Client communication —> API
call to app

16. Demo: Uber Bot
• Domain
• Fetch user history of rides
• Book a cab
• Train bot to understand cab booking patterns and
anticipate bookings
• Personality
• Jesse Pinkman (:P)

17. References
• Introduction to Bots and basic principles - http://designmodo.com/chatbots-design/
• About how messaging is taking over the world - https://blog.intercom.io/messaging-apps-just-getting-started/
• How messaging would evolve in the future - https://blog.intercom.io/emoji-and-stickers-are-just-the-beginning/
• Priciples of bot design - https://blog.intercom.io/principles-bot-design/
• Funny article on the origins of BASAAP - http://berglondon.com/blog/2010/09/04/b-a-s-a-a-p/
• Developing chatbot personalities - http://www.fastcodesign.com/3054934/the-next-phase-of-ux-designing-
chatbot-personalities
• Flow of a bot application - http://www.a-i.com/show_tree.asp?id=61&level=3&root=1
• How to make a better bot - https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-to-make-a-better-bot-c038626fd401#.gkgztq4sg
• How not to piss off users - https://medium.com/@andknf/3-tools-for-building-bots-that-people-won-t-tell-to-fuck-
off-584889eaf6b9#.x2th8d4v6
• Advanced Deep learning model for retrieval based systems - http://www.wildml.com/2016/07/deep-learning-
for-chatbots-2-retrieval-based-model-tensorflow/