Ice cream Bot
Skill Summary: conversational chat-bot design, action flows, dialog flows, prototyping, storyboards,
Current state ice cream bot storyboard
GIF of “Phase 1” ice cream bot interactive prototype created with Axure
Overview
Ice cream bot is a fictional bot that the Virtual Assistant team uses to showcase conversational UX standards for prospective clients and help them understand what to expect when engaging with the VA team. Along with a clickable prototype, Ice cream bot has examples of other deliverables such as action flows, dialog flows, and storyboards.
The fictional purpose of ice cream bot is to streamline the ordering process for both ice cream shop customers and employees. Customers can order a variety of frozen ice cream treats such as cones, sundaes, milkshakes (frappes if you’re from Massachusetts like me), and floats. The system persona of ice cream bot is fun and casual, and also uses regional slang. “MVP” does not include payment processing or order scheduling.
Process
After collaborating with the other UX folks on the virtual assistant team to determine what requirements we wanted for each “phase”, I created an action flow for the ordering process that includes bot actions, user actions, and backend system actions. Areas where options will be presented or free-text is enabled, along with “i don’t know” scenarios are also indicated at this stage. Once reviewed and “approved” by the fictional stakeholders, I move on to the dialog flow which showcases the actual copy that the bot would present to the user, There may also be some “variables” which might be a placeholder for something like a greeting that changes with each new session to mimic the variability that would occur if interacting with a human. After dialog is “approved”, I create static wireframes to explore different ways to present the dialog and actions visually on the bot. At this stage some of the flows and dialog might be altered as new use cases and considerations are discovered. Lastly, any interactions that could benefit from a clickable demo will be created and once all approved, a full clickable prototype will be created for user testing.
Snippet from action flow diagram showing the bot and user actions for frozen treat type selection, selecting a cup or cone, and selecting a size.
Snippet from dialog flow diagram showing the bot dialog and user options for frozen treat type selection, selecting a cup or cope and selecting a size.
Low-fidelity wireframes for the first three steps of ordering an ice cream (treat selection, choosing a cup or cone and choosing flavors)
