May 2017
Intermediate to advanced
348 pages
7h 53m
English
Content preview from Designing BotsBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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Chapter 5. Bot Anatomy
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
—HAL, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
BOTS ARE SOFTWARE-POWERED USERS that live inside our chat apps—we converse and interact with bots using text, buttons, voice, and other rich controls. When it comes to bots, software meets humans on our playing field; they adhere to the way humans communicate and try to adjust to our way of thinking. The key is not to teach the user how to fill in a form, or to take them to the right page, but rather to recognize the user’s intent (what does the user wish to do?) and to guide them in accomplishing that intent.
To quote my designer friend Dana Cohen Baron, “At last! Machines speaking like humans, instead of humans having to adjust to the machine’s way of communicating.”
The conversational interface is sometimes referred to as a transparent user experience because it is a service exposed through simple text, and that is true in some circumstances. But in this chapter you will learn that there are a lot of components that compose a bot, as well as many things to consider when designing one.
Key takeaway
When it comes to bots, software meets humans on our playing field; they adhere to the way humans communicate and try to adjust to our way of thinking.
Breaking Down Bots
As mentioned, like with most technologies and user interfaces, there are several components we will need to design, aspects we will need to consider, and decisions ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.