Voicebot and Chatbot Design: Flexible conversational interfaces with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Facebook Messenger

✍ Scribed by Rachel Batish

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 345
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Create conversational UIs using cutting-edge frameworks

Key Features

• Build AI chatbots and voicebots using practical and accessible toolkits
• Design and create voicebots that really shine in front of humans
• Work with familiar appliances like Alexa, Google Home, and FB Messenger
• Design for UI success across different industries and use cases

Book Description

We are entering the age of conversational interfaces, where we will interact with AI bots using chat and voice. But how do we create a good conversation? How do we design and build voicebots and chatbots that can carry successful conversations in in the real world?

In this book, Rachel Batish introduces us to the world of conversational applications, bots and AI. You'll discover how - with little technical knowledge - you can build successful and meaningful conversational UIs. You'll find detailed guidance on how to build and deploy bots on the leading conversational platforms, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Facebook Messenger.

You'll then learn key design aspects for building conversational UIs that will really succeed and shine in front of humans. You'll discover how your AI bots can become part of a meaningful conversation with humans, using techniques such as persona shaping, and tone analysis.

For successful bots in the real world, you'll explore important use-cases and examples where humans interact with bots. With examples across finance, travel, and e-commerce, you'll see how you can create successful conversational UIs in any sector.

Expand your horizons further as Rachel shares with you her insights into cutting-edge voicebot and chatbot technologies, and how the future might unfold. Join in right now and start building successful, high impact bots!

What you will learn

• Build your own AI voicebots and chatbots
• Use familiar appliances like Alexa, Google Home, and Facebook Messenger
• Master the elements of conversational user interfaces
• Key design techniques to make your bots successful
• Use tone analysis to deepen UI conversation for humans
• Create voicebots and UIs designed for real-world situations
• Insightful case studies in finance, travel, and e-commerce
• Cutting-edge technology and insight into the future of AI bots

Who this book is for

This book is for you, if you want to deepen your appreciation of UI and how conversational UIs - driven by artificial intelligence - are transforming the way humans interact with computers, appliances, and the everyday world around us. This book works with the major UI toolkits available today, so you do not need a deep programming knowledge to build the bots in this book: a basic familiarity with markup languages and JavaScript will give you everything you need to start building cutting-edge conversational UIs.

Table of Contents

1. Conversational UI is our Future
2. How Not to Build Your Next Chat and Voicebots
3. Building a Killer Conversational App
4. Designing for Amazon Alexa and Google Home
5. Designing a Facebook Messenger Chatbot
6. Contextual Design – Can We Make a Bot Feel More Human?
7. Building Personalities – Your Bot Can Be a Better Human
8. A View into Vertical-Specific Bots – Financial Institutions
9. Travel and E-Commerce Bots – Use Cases and Implementation
10. Conversational Design Project – A Step-By-Step Guide
11. Summary

✦ Table of Contents

Voicebot and Chatbot Design
Table of Contents
Voicebot and Chatbot Design
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewers
Packt is Searching for Authors Like You
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
1. Conversational UI is our Future
What is conversational UI?
The evolution of conversational UI
Textual interface
Graphical user interface (GUI)
Conversational UI
Voice-enabled conversational UI
The stack of conversational UI
Voice recognition technology
NLU
Dictionaries/samples
Context
State machine
Event-driven contextual approach
Business logic/dynamic data
Challenges and gaps in conversational UI
NLU is an AI-hard problem
Accuracy level
From GUI to CUI and VUI
Chatbots
Voicebots
Non-implicit contextual conversation
Security and privacy
Summary
References
2. How Not to Build Your Next Chat and Voicebots
Why are we building a conversational UI?
Chats and chatbots
Voicebots, IVAs, and voice-enabled interaction
What your bot shouldn't be
Define your use cases – not too little and not too much
Don't just build and forget
Summary
References
3. Building a Killer Conversational App
Find the direct path to initial success
Think like a search engine, not a command line
Give your bot a "personality," but don't pretend it's a human
Chatbot examples
Voicebot examples
Build an omni-channel solution – find your tool
Stay up-to-date with the trends
Summary
References and additional reading
4. Designing for Amazon Alexa and Google Home
Amazon Echo? Alexa? Google Home? Actions? What does it all mean?!
Amazon Echo
Echo Dot
Echo Show
Who or what is Alexa?
Google Home
Google Home Mini
Google Home Max
Just a few words on Apple's HomePod
Developing skills and actions
Voice recognition
Utterances
Natural language understanding (NLU)
Intent
Fulfilment
Response
Slots/entities
Developing skills on Amazon Alexa
Developing actions for Google Home
Summary
References
5. Designing a Facebook Messenger Chatbot
The FB Messenger stack
Building a FB Messenger bot using Wit.ai
Tutorial
Challenges and consequences of the FB Messenger bot
Other tools to develop FB Messenger bots
Summary
References
6. Contextual Design – Can We Make a Bot Feel More Human?
Contextual conversations or contextual design?
Building contextual conversations: humans versus bots
How can a bot be better than a web search or human interaction?
Conversational structure
The bot as an intelligent assistant
The case of robo-advisors and how they impact the bot industry
Text and toning
Emotional intelligence versus AI-based emotional intelligence
Positive responses
False-positive responses
Negative responses
Trolling
Summary
References:
7. Building Personalities – Your Bot Can Be a Better Human
Personification of computers
Building personas
Who can build it?
What's your bot's job description?
Who are your bot's clients?
Building your bot's personality
Gender
Look and feel
Voice and style
Small talk = big success
Building multiple personas
Methodologies for building your bot's personas
Summary
References
8. A View into Vertical-Specific Bots – Financial Institutions
Can a banking bot become a travel bot?
Financial institutions – use cases, implementation, and examples
Why?
Where?
What?
Financial institution chatbots
Bank of America
Wells Fargo
UI and UX best practices
Wells Fargo
Capital One
Financial institution voice-enabled conversational bots
Capital One
GEICO
Summary
References
9. Travel and E-Commerce Bots – Use Cases and Implementation
Travel and E-Commerce challenges
Can you compete with something that is already successful?
How do chatbots and voicebots manage data presentation?
Defining a new data discovery model
Use cases and recommendations
Travel
KAYAK
What went well and what didn't?
KAYAK on Alexa
Hotel search
Flight search
E-Commerce
eBay
What went well and what didn't?
Summary
References
10. Conversational Design Project – A Step-By-Step Guide
Defining the stakeholders
Defining the goals
Who does our bot address?
Where and how – choosing devices
Our conversational application's persona
Functionality and use cases
Development and testing
Deployment, maintenance, and analytics
Summary
11. Summary
Conversational interfaces – how did it all start and where do we stand today?
Why do we even need conversational solutions? What do they bring to the table?
How to build great conversational applications
Development: technical and non-technical expertise
Vertical-specific or a mega bot?
Summary
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