Create a Clear and Concise Welcome Message

A welcome message should welcome the user and give a brief explanation of the scope of the agent. Keep the copy to a minimum so as not to overwhelm the user.

                Example:

      Hi Britt! I'm *AstroBot*. I can provide you with all of your Astrology needs and more!

If you would like to know what I do, just ask me!

When your user returns to the agent, rather than giving the user the initial welcome message, consider creating a welcome back message:

         Example:

    Welcome back, Britt! It’s good to see you again!

    What would you like to do today? For ideas, just ask me!

Give your Agent a Help Page

Give your users a central place to get information and help.  Creating a help page puts each feature of your agent in one place that is easily reachable by your users. Create matching for words and sentences such as:

     ? Help

     ? What can you do?

     ? Home

     ? I’m confused

A typical help message looks like this:

Here are some things you can ask me:

What are some movies in my area? 

Search for movies by genre.

Change the location of my search.

You can make it more engaging and exciting:

Here are some of the things that I can do for you, Britt!

·         Get *info* such as news, weather and sports

·         Visit my *library* including a dictionary, a thesaurus and world facts

·         Have *fun* with hangman, 4-in-a-row, reversi and more

·         Use *tools* like Web search, reminders and conversions

·         *Join in* - create a poll, tell me about a crush, leave a message and more

·         See *what's new* - I've got something new to tell you about now.

Just tell me what you want to do, and we can start!

Catch What Your Agent Doesn’t Know

For those questions your agent doesn’t know the answer to, you should use a “catch” message that matches on the default =Catch subpattern.  A catch message should be concise and point your user to the help message.

          Example:

    I'm sorry, I didn't understand your question. Please ask again using as few words as necessary.

    You can ask for help if you are not sure what to do.

Make it fun:

           Whoa! That’s a little outside of my scope. Come again?

    If you’re lost, just ask for help!

Remember User Information

Take advantage of stored user variables to remember things that you can use in the future to better personalize the long-term user experience.

 Example:  

stored variable G_USER_FAVORITE_COLOR = ()

procedure AskUserFavoriteColor()

  - What is your favorite color?

  ? =Anything

    - That doesn’t sound like a color to me, I hope we can try again. What is your favorite color?

    restart dialog

? It is COLOR=AColor.
  ? My favorite color is COLOR=AColor.

  G_USER_FAVORITE_COLOR = COLOR

    - Thanks! I’ll remember that your favorite color is COLOR.

 The above code assumes that AColor is a valid subpattern.

Use Canonical Questions

A canonical question establishes the most concise, “representative” question for a topic.  If a user asks an ambiguous question, the agent responds with a clarification request using the canonicals for each matched topic. Note that only one question should be marked as a canonical in a topic.

          Example:

   +- What is my horoscope?

 ? What is my horoscope?

 ? Zodiac

 +- What is my Zodiac sign?

 ? What is my Zodiac sign?

 ? Zodiac

 User: zodiac

   Agent: What did you mean?

   1 What is my horoscope?

   2 What is my Zodiac sign?

Use Dialogs

Dialogs create a more interactive experience and help the user to feel like he/she is driving the conversation.

         Example:

     - Hey, I have really cool games. You wanna see them?

     ? Yes.

       - Here are my games:

         <empty/>

         Hangman {*}

         Word Scramble {*}

         Reversi {*}

     ? No.

       - OK! Next time you want to see my games, just type “games.”