Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Robert Sens

The advent and hype around Conversational UI and Chatbots over the past few years has lead to the launch of a host of bespoke messaging platforms and chatbots — some garnering a bit more success interacting with users than others.

Engaging a user in a conversation can be an extremely effective means to interact and convert them. However, it will take some time, testing, and iteration before we can know if Chatbots and Conversational UI have the potential to truly resonate with users at scale — or if they will quickly morph into a variety of hybrid applications that more closely integrate into the design and technology paradigms that users are accustomed to using.

Regardless of hype or trends, as designers and product leaders it is our responsibility to research, analyze, dissect, and understand a problem before we begin the process of crafting a solution. Only by first understanding the Who, What, Where, When, and Why, can we begin to make an informed decision on the How.

Only by first understanding the who, what, where, when, and why, can we begin to make an informed decision on the how.

Gathering and understanding information, then synthesizing and making informed assumptions is a critical step in the design process — fueling our ability to push beyond obvious approaches toward more meaningful, engaging, and effective design solutions.

By utilizing a thoughtful, systematic approach…we can architect more effective conversational dialog.

The design and implementation of Conversation UI & Chatbot dialog should be no different. By utilizing a thoughtful, systematic approach that leverages the same underlying principles of first understanding the who, what, where, when, and why — we can architect more effective conversational dialog that enable us to better understand a users active intent, needs, and desires. Using that information, we can then make a decision on how to deliver the most relevant experience to cater to their needs.

Designing minimal conversations that yield maximum impact

First impressions are important. An excerpt from a university study states that “people make 11 decisions about us in the first seven seconds of contact…and then…the rest of your time is spent finding evidence to prove your original impression of that person”*. These decisions include factors such as trustworthiness, level of sophistication, perceived credibility, believability, competence and honesty.

*Source: Michael Solomon, PhD, Psychologist, Chairman, Marketing Department Graduate School of Business, NYU.

In many ways, users treat products and services in the same fashion — immediately generating a set of expectations around what a product should do for them and how it will do it, as soon as they begin interacting with it.

Conversational UI and Chatbot interactions have the greatest potential to deliver impact when conversations are kept direct, short, and sweet — rapidly progressing to the point where relevant, tangible content and value is demonstrated to a user.

The minimalism of Conversational UI and Chatbot design places them in a unique position. Instead of leaning heavily on bespoke visual style and product imagery, a mixture of text-based dialog, sparse imagery, and direct interaction is the means by which they attempt to showcase value to a user.

Given these constraints, it is incredibly important to design minimally, for maximum impact. Conversational UI and Chatbot interactions have the greatest potential to deliver impact when conversations are kept direct, short, and sweet — rapidly progressing to the point where relevant, tangible content and value is demonstrated to a user.

So how can we ensure we are designing minimally, for maximum impact?

Introducing the 5 W’s Framework

The 5 W’s is a flexible design framework that can be utilized to efficiently frame, define, and construct impactful and engaging conversational flows and dialog. As previously discussed, Conversational UI and Chatbot interactions have the greatest potential to deliver impact when conversations are kept direct, short, and sweet — rapidly progressing to the point where relevant, tangible content and value is demonstrated to a user.

Knowing this, when engaging a user in a conversation it is imperative to accomplish two goals as quickly and efficiently as possible:

Engage + Collect:
First, directly engage the user with a line of questioning that has been crafted to quickly collect the information needed to better understand their active intent, needs, and desires.
Parse + Deliver
Second, immediately parse the information collected and use it to assemble and deliver a set of curated content that possesses the greatest potential to fulfill their needs.

Sounds simple right? Let’s see how it works.

The 5 W’s

The 5 W’s are the building blocks of the framework — the Who, What, Where, When, and Why. On the surface, these are basic ideas. However, when we think abstractly about what each can mean, within the unique context of the product/service we are designing for, the flexibility of each ‘W’ and how they can work together begins to reveal itself.

The simplified examples below begin to illustrate the versatility of the 5 W’s to craft questions for different types of products and services.

Each of the 5 W’s can certainly be used independently. However, when we get creative and start to string two or more together, their power to frame and craft a targeted line of questioning with the ability to identify, and quickly collect the information necessary to understand the active intent, needs, and goals of a user is revealed.

Framework structure & components

The framework has two distinct components that each play a role in the overall outcome. These include a single, primary leading question and a variable, secondary set of follow-on questions.

Leading Question:
The leading question kicks off your conversation with a user. This question should be crafted to collect the single most flexible piece of data that can help you identify a user’s active intent, needs, and goal within the context of your product or service offering.
Follow-on Question(s):
A variable set of questions follow your leading question. This set of questions should be based on a users response to your leading question and intelligently constructed to provide you with the additional details you need to quickly hone in on a user’s active intent, needs, and goals.

Choosing a leading question

As previously mentioned, your leading question should collect the single most flexible piece of data to begin to hone in on a user’s active intent. But how should you choose it? A good starting point is an evaluation of your product or service that includes a deep dive into the most common user scenarios and engagement patterns.

A few questions to ask include:

What is it that we offer and what does it do for our users?
Who uses our product the most often and why?
How and when are people engaging and acquiring our product or service?

The results of this evaluation should yield patterns that allow you to make an educated guess on which ‘W’ is best suited to kick off the conversation. For example, in the case of a ticketing or reservation platform, a When question may be the best way to kick off a conversation. Whereas a shopping platform with a more diverse product offering might identify that a What question is the best way to begin.

Building upon your leading question

Your follow-on question(s) should be assembled based on a user’s response to your leading question. They should consist of the fewest possible prompts needed to provide the additional details you need to quickly hone in on a user’s active intent. This is where we can start to get creative — stringing 2 or more ‘W’s’ together to frame and craft an intelligent, succinct, and targeted line of questioning.

This is where we can start to get creative — stringing 2 or more ‘W’s’ together to frame and craft an intelligent, succinct, and targeted line of questioning.

For example, in the case of the ticketing or reservation platform, if the answer to our leading When question was “Now” we have identified that a user has an active, immediate need and can infer that we should be tactical and direct with our follow-on question(s) — quickly gathering information that allows us to deliver a set of targeted results that can fulfill their need.

Now, if instead their answer was “A day in the future”, we have identified that a user has a less imminent need and that they are planning ahead for the future. Planning ahead could mean many things — perhaps they are organizing a group event or celebrating a milestone or anniversary. In this situation, we can be a bit more playful and loose with our follow-on questions — gathering additional information that allows us to deliver a set of more personalized results to fulfill a users need.

Limitless application…

The framework can easily be implemented when framing and crafting conversation dialog and interactions across a myriad of different product or service offerings. Here are just a few examples.

Conclusion

First impressions are important and given the minimalism of Chatbots and Conversational UI, it is incredibly important to design minimally, for maximum impact. By designing targeted conversations that are direct, short, and sweet — we can rapidly progress to the point where we are able to deliver relevant, tangible content and value to a user.

Only by first understanding the Who, What, Where, When, and Why, can we begin to make an informed decision on the How. The 5 W’s is a flexible design framework that can help frame, define, and construct impactful conversational flows and dialog. By gathering the most important information from a user to better understand their active intent, needs, and desires — then acting on it, we can deliver a more personalized, relevant experience that speaks directly to their needs.

Thank you for reading! I hope this concept got you thinking and inspires you to create something. All thoughts and opinions are welcome — let’s chat!

Intrigued?

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About the author:
Robert Sens is a senior interaction designer at frog and a freelance digital product designer & art director. He works somewhere near the intersection of design, technology, and strategy — crafting intelligent experiences for humans.

Design better chatbot dialog using the ‘Five W’s’ framework was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Design better chatbot dialog using the ‘Five W’s’ framework

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