FOUNDATIONS
OF CHAT BOT DESIGN
Davide ‘Folletto’ Casali
NIGHT.EU
Manifesto Ibridi
F E L L O W
DESIGN DIRECTOR ADVISOR
@Folletto
THE VALLEY
PART I
Uncanny Valley
Masahiro Mori (1970) The Uncanny Valley
AffinityHIGH
Creepy when lifelike is close but not attained
Toy robot
Industrial robot
Healthy person
Prosthetic hand
0% 100%
LOWCREEPY
Human Likeness
Uncanny Valley
AffinityHIGH
Mapped to Dialogue Only
0% 100%
Healthy person
Command line
AI bot
Not good enough AI bot
Keyword bot
LOWCREEPY
Human Likeness
Uncanny Valley
AffinityHIGHLOW
Scoping for the right goal
0% 100%
CREEPY
Human Likeness
CONSUMER R&D
DESIGN
PART II
Expectations
Expectations
Expectations
“ask me anything”
The stupidest thing a bot could say.
AMA
Sensors
Context awareness
Sensors
user name
user data
previous discussions
time of day
last few user actions
originating page
Abilities
Actions it can take
Abilities
change user data
change settings
send emails
do a user command
operate service
navigate
Command Line Fallacy
“The user knows what to type”
?
Dialog
Understanding and replying
Dialog
understand language
show variation
answer properly
ask questions
short term memory
aware of discussion
Shallow
mode
Deep
mode
Shallow
mode {Direct questions
Various topics
Unrelated
Deep
mode}Ask question
Follow up
Troubleshooting
Sensors Abilities Dialog
SEMANTIC CONES
PART III
Discussion Flow Fallacy
“Design the flow”
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Semantic Cones
Semantic Cones
WIDE
Try to accept the wider possible input
“How do I know the user is in this cone?”
DEEP
Keep context until the goal is reached
“How do I get the user to their goal?”
how do I return a parcel?
Packages have different prices
depending on location. What’s your
postcode?
not now, do you support normal mail?
Packages have different prices
depending on location. What’s your
postcode?
arggghh
Packages have different prices
START
How to open the
conversation.
SWITCH
How to change a
topic.
Semantic Cones
Expert
Topic
Wayfinding
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Wayfinding
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
Expert
Topic
AbilitiesSensors
Be always aware
of the technical layer.
“
”
Bruno Munari
To complicate is easy, to simplify is hard.
To complicate, just add,
everyone is able to complicate.
Few are able to simplify.
Thanks.
@Folletto
INTENSEMINIMALISM.COM
Thanks to Carly Stambaugh for the technical review.

Foundations of Chat Bot Design