Lausanne Chatbots meetup François Helg - 1st March 2017
Lessons learnt building a “chatbot” for children
WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT
WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT
Jun
2015
M
ar
2017
Sept
2015
MVP
Feed-

back 1
Oct
2015
Conversational UI + Engine MVP
Jun
2016
Feed-

back 2
Jul
2016
Lessons learned
Improved conversations

Chatbot experiments
Facebook Messenger

supports chatbots
Apr
2016
Challenges + Decisions made
The world’s first online 

digital assistant for children
FEEDBACK ON FIRST MVP
INSPIRATION
➤ Not so much by the
conversational UI and ChatBot
trend as a whole (was a bit
before the hype)
➤ By a particular application
➤ Quartz
CHILDREN LOVE CHAT APPLICATIONS
Source OFCOM: Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2015
TRADITIONAL TEAM ORGANISATION
UX Designer
Engineers
Team
Product Owner
LEVEL OF SOPHISTICATION
➤ Transactional and narrow
domain
➤ Incident resolution
➤ Based on a decision tree
➤ The child follow a pre-
defined scenario
https://medium.com/convcomp2016/conversational-vs-transactional-chatbots-172166f3d2fc#.nfl0bbbb5
CREATE A PERSONA FOR OUR BOT
A
1 2 3
B
C
https://chatbotsmagazine.com/your-chatbots-personality-is-the-key-683a2051fb7d
SCENARIO DEFINITION
ADD ONE MORE PROFILE
UX Designer
Engineers
Team
Product Owner
Content writer
CONVERSATION - CREATION / REVIEW PROCESS
FEEDBACK ON OUR CONVERSATIONAL UI
➤ Let me come back if I’m not
sure!
➤ Be more funny and less
predictable
➤ What if I could ask questions
to the bot
LET ME COME BACK IF I AM NOT SURE
➤ Conceive the conversation as
threads or topics
➤ Better abstraction of human
conversations
➤ People want to explore
what is possible
BE MORE FUNNY AND LESS PREDICTABLE
➤ Add emotion to the bot
➤ Support for more multimedia content : image, animated GIF,
emoticons, videos
➤ Add some unpredictability in the formulations
➤ Randomness, keep more context into consideration
WHAT IF I COULD ASK QUESTIONS TO THE BOT
➤ Trigger conversations based on
known categories
➤ Simple NLP to understand
intent in questions
➤ “Tell me about
cyberbullying”
➤ Evaluating API.ai (if you have
a feed-back to give us, please go
ahead)
INVEST IN MACHINE LEARNING
➤ We are working with an EPFL
lab to work to help our bot
match answers to elaborate
questions
➤ “What should I do!!! I just
shared an image of myself naked
to that asshole of Chris, my ex
boyfriend.”
EXPLORING CHATBOTS
➤ On platforms where our users
are
➤ Kik, Facebook
➤ For particular use cases
➤ Report Cyber-bullying
➤ Provide educational content
➤ A channel to acquire new
users
SUMMARY
➤ Create a personality for your bot
➤ Start with a narrow domain, solve a real problem and learn
➤ The quality of the conversations is key
➤ Find a good content writer
➤ Add image, video
➤ Add some unpredictability
➤ Let people explore what your bot can do
➤ Keep an eye on the ecosystem
INTERESTING RESOURCES
➤ Reading
➤ ChatbotMagazine
➤ Virtual conference
➤ http://www.botscamp.co/
➤ Meetups
➤ Lausanne Chatbots
➤ Swiss Chatbot
@OyotyApp
facebook.com/oyoty
Thanks for your attention

Oyoty - Lessons learnt building a “chatbot” for children

  • 1.
    Lausanne Chatbots meetupFrançois Helg - 1st March 2017 Lessons learnt building a “chatbot” for children
  • 3.
    WHAT ARE WETALKING ABOUT
  • 4.
    WHAT ARE WETALKING ABOUT
  • 5.
    Jun 2015 M ar 2017 Sept 2015 MVP Feed-
 back 1 Oct 2015 Conversational UI+ Engine MVP Jun 2016 Feed-
 back 2 Jul 2016 Lessons learned Improved conversations
 Chatbot experiments Facebook Messenger
 supports chatbots Apr 2016 Challenges + Decisions made The world’s first online 
 digital assistant for children
  • 6.
  • 7.
    INSPIRATION ➤ Not somuch by the conversational UI and ChatBot trend as a whole (was a bit before the hype) ➤ By a particular application ➤ Quartz
  • 8.
    CHILDREN LOVE CHATAPPLICATIONS Source OFCOM: Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2015
  • 9.
    TRADITIONAL TEAM ORGANISATION UXDesigner Engineers Team Product Owner
  • 10.
    LEVEL OF SOPHISTICATION ➤Transactional and narrow domain ➤ Incident resolution ➤ Based on a decision tree ➤ The child follow a pre- defined scenario https://medium.com/convcomp2016/conversational-vs-transactional-chatbots-172166f3d2fc#.nfl0bbbb5
  • 11.
    CREATE A PERSONAFOR OUR BOT A 1 2 3 B C https://chatbotsmagazine.com/your-chatbots-personality-is-the-key-683a2051fb7d
  • 12.
  • 13.
    ADD ONE MOREPROFILE UX Designer Engineers Team Product Owner Content writer
  • 14.
    CONVERSATION - CREATION/ REVIEW PROCESS
  • 15.
    FEEDBACK ON OURCONVERSATIONAL UI ➤ Let me come back if I’m not sure! ➤ Be more funny and less predictable ➤ What if I could ask questions to the bot
  • 16.
    LET ME COMEBACK IF I AM NOT SURE ➤ Conceive the conversation as threads or topics ➤ Better abstraction of human conversations ➤ People want to explore what is possible
  • 17.
    BE MORE FUNNYAND LESS PREDICTABLE ➤ Add emotion to the bot ➤ Support for more multimedia content : image, animated GIF, emoticons, videos ➤ Add some unpredictability in the formulations ➤ Randomness, keep more context into consideration
  • 18.
    WHAT IF ICOULD ASK QUESTIONS TO THE BOT ➤ Trigger conversations based on known categories ➤ Simple NLP to understand intent in questions ➤ “Tell me about cyberbullying” ➤ Evaluating API.ai (if you have a feed-back to give us, please go ahead)
  • 19.
    INVEST IN MACHINELEARNING ➤ We are working with an EPFL lab to work to help our bot match answers to elaborate questions ➤ “What should I do!!! I just shared an image of myself naked to that asshole of Chris, my ex boyfriend.”
  • 20.
    EXPLORING CHATBOTS ➤ Onplatforms where our users are ➤ Kik, Facebook ➤ For particular use cases ➤ Report Cyber-bullying ➤ Provide educational content ➤ A channel to acquire new users
  • 21.
    SUMMARY ➤ Create apersonality for your bot ➤ Start with a narrow domain, solve a real problem and learn ➤ The quality of the conversations is key ➤ Find a good content writer ➤ Add image, video ➤ Add some unpredictability ➤ Let people explore what your bot can do ➤ Keep an eye on the ecosystem
  • 22.
    INTERESTING RESOURCES ➤ Reading ➤ChatbotMagazine ➤ Virtual conference ➤ http://www.botscamp.co/ ➤ Meetups ➤ Lausanne Chatbots ➤ Swiss Chatbot
  • 23.