Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2mI9d10">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Sanit Jain 
I recently started getting interested in bots and really got hooked. Started reading up on bots, best practices, frameworks and whatever I could get my hands on :-). And then, I decided to put it to the test by building my own bot.
Before I get into the core topic, it’s important to talk about why I decided to build what I build. I am a member of a public Facebook group <a href="http://ift.tt/2nDpIuj">Let Food Be Thy Medicine</a> which has close to 25k+ members. The main topics revolved around plant-based food, nutrition, recipes etc. Recipes were something that caught my attention as a lot of members had questions on finding recipes, and having to google search most of time to find something interesting rather than having one common place.
So I thought a Messenger bot was probably a good idea so that people (already on Facebook) could access the bot quickly and easily, and be able to find recipes they were looking for. I released it a few weeks back, understood what users are asking, and am still working on enhancements. But I wanted to share some of my learnings that might help anyone who is building a bot for the first time.
<ol>
<li>Think about the platforms you choose to solve the issue</li>
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Building bots is relatively new and cool but it doesn’t mean that it will help solve the problem you are trying to solve. I chose Messenger as the audience I needed to reach was already on Facebook. I couldn’t have reached maximum users if I hadn’t chosen Messenger. Think about Banking bots, most of them would prefer not to route your personal information via any 3rd party platforms such as Facebook, Telegram etc. Rather, they could use a simple SMS platform so the users are more confident about their private data.
2. Make sure the bot introduces itself, well!
I have seen a few bots that do a poor job of introducing themselves initially when users start chatting with them. When you meet a new person, you do introduce yourself, right? The same applies to a bot. The user needs to know who you are and how they can chat with you. Introduce the bot but don’t bombard them with a big story. Just try to ease into the conversation and do the work of an ice breaker. Sometimes an on-boarding video or a picture works wonders as a visual introduction.
Look at the example below. Very crisp and straightforward introduction. As a user, I quickly understand how I should start interacting.
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2n92boF">Example of a good introduction
3. Break the conversation into smaller chunks
Think about how you chat with your friends. Do you tell them a big story upfront by writing a few paragraphs before they even respond? If you do, god help your friends but in normal cases, I would first say hi, and wait for the other person to respond back before I ask them or tell them something more. I would be super annoyed if a bot sent me a lot of text to read. And what would I do, I would report the bot as spam!
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2nDpJhR">Too much text<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2n8Pk5Q">Breaking communication into smaller chunks
4. Design your bot with a personality in mind
Let your bot tell a story, a compelling one. Users would rather like to engage in experiences than just having a plain vanilla conversation. This is a great <a href="http://ift.tt/2nDpK5p">article </a>on bot personality with a few examples.
5. Ask for user feedback at the right time
Get user feedback during a conversation with the user. Of course, don’t interrupt in between but subtly ask the user whether chatting with the bot was fun or not? Usually, after you provide them the answer to their question. Don’t ask for feedback with the first couple of interactions within the same session. Let users be comfortable first. Timing your question for feedback is critical to get proper feedback.
6. Want to retain users? Make your bot pro-active
It’s obvious that you need to build a bot that solves the users problem. But always make sure that you push messages to them. People these days have so many different chats, so many different chat clients and a lot going on in their online social life. They will most likely not get back to your bot. So make sure you push important information to them but walk a fine line between spamming and being useful and pro-active. Always first ask the users whether they would like to be notified or not and whenever you push a message, make sure there is a way to turn off notifications.
7. Plan for some important questions
Consider you are building a bot for helping people meditate. Be prepared to let your bot answer some questions around the topic. As an example, a couple of days back, I came across a Messenger bot that helps users meditate by making them stay on track and be disciplined. When I simply asked “What is Meditation and why should I practise it?”, the bot responded back saying “I don’t understand”. Sorry but if you don’t know what meditation is then how can I trust you? That’s a total turn-off.
If you haven’t built a bot yet, I hope are already thinking about building one.
Please let me know in the comments section what you though about my article and don’t forget to recommend it if you like it.
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<a href="http://ift.tt/2nDpL9t">Want to build a good chat-bot? Don’t miss out on these things…</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">Prototyping: From UX to Front End</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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