Voicebot and Chatbot Design

Voicebot and Chatbot Design

by Rachel Batish
Released September 2018
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781789139624

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Book description

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.

Publisher resources

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Table of contents

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

Product information

  • Title: Voicebot and Chatbot Design
  • Author(s): Rachel Batish
  • Release date: September 2018
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789139624