CUX Design Process Design Process Overview

Intro

When you are designing for conversational user experience, the process has several iterations as you refine the user experience. This is an overview of the conversational design process. Each phase in the CxD process has an associated template to help you plan and design your digital assistant.These are iterative phases (not linear steps) like the Design Thinking process. For a quick course on Design Thinking, check out Design Thinking in a Nutshell on openSAP.

Design Thinking Process
Design Thinking Process

Discover

In the Discover phase you will define your personas, challenges, painpoints, user interviews, and getting an understanding of who your users are and what they need. If you’re not sure if conversation is the best choice for your project, check the Modalities Template for some questions to consider. Follow these steps in the Discover phase:

Assess Potential Users and Primary Use Case

  1. Think of some potential users and use cases that represent your users. What tasks do users have and how can you help them accomplish their tasks?
  2. Use the CxD Checklist Template to help you decide if conversational design is the best choice for your use case.

 

Define the Scope

  1. Gather research to use help you define the scope of your use case and your target user. Who are your users and how will they phrase (expressions) their questions to your digital assistant? Use the Horizontal Coverage Template to help with this step.
  2. Create intents and upload responses to the SAP platform.

 

 

Create User Persona and Understand Chatbot Persona

  1. Map the user journey. Where are the start and end points of your user’s experience? Use the User Journey & Personas Template to help with this step.
  2. Create a user to define how users will interact with your digital assistant. What could trigger users to access your digital assistant? Use the CxD Personality and the CxD Personality Framework to help with this step.

Output

In the Discover phase, you should:

  • validate your use case
  • define your scope
  • map the user journey
  • create user personas

Resources

Design

In the Design phase, you’ll define your roadmap, create and test out your conversation. Follow these steps in the Design phase:

Create Your Roadmap

  1. Create a conversational flow by roleplaying a basic scenario (happy path) where everything goes planned and the user’s request is answered. The dialog flow is a simple back-and-forth conversation between the user and the digital assistant, like two colleagues talking. Use the Roadmap Template to help with this step.
  2. You can then abstract your dialog to create a conversational roadmap.

 

Polish and Test Your Conversation

  1. Refine your digital assistant responses. Align digital assistant responses with the Use Crafting Responses to help with this step.
  2. Test the conversational flow using the Wizard of Ozz testing method by having people act as the user and interact with the digital assistant that they think is a “computer”. Ideally, have the user role played by someone who hasn’t created any of the dialog.

Explain the use case scenario and have the user role interact with the digital assistant role in a natural way. The digital assistant role can only use digital assistant responses in the dialog you created. Use the Polish & Test template for help with this step.

Output

In the Design phase, you should:

  • create conversational flow and roadmap
  • refine digital assistant responses
  • roleplay using Wizard of testing

Resources

Prototype

In the Prototype phase, you’ll create a digital assistant prototype in the SAP Conversational AI platform, test it, and refine it. Follow these steps in the Prototype phase:

SAP Conversational AI Platform

SAP Conversational AI is an end-to-end digital assistant (chatbot) building platform that manages business tasks by deploying powerful conversational AI interfaces. It lets you train, build, connect, test, and monitor enterprise digital assistants.

  1. Build your digital assistant on the SAP Conversational AI platform.
  2. Test the digital assistant with colleagues at your company and ask them for feedback.
  3. Review logs to enhance the dialog based on user feedback on expectations, frustrations, and what needs change.

Output

  • create a prototype on the SAP CAI Platform
  • get initial feedback from testers
  • refine digital asssitant dialog

Resources

Test

In the Test phase, you’ll test your digital assistant with real users. In the Test phase, follow these steps:

Alpha/Beta Testing

Do Alpha and Beta testing of your digital assistant with real users to validate the conversational experience and find areas of improvement before launching your digital assistant at a large scale.

  • Alpha testing is done with actual users in a controlled environment.
  • Beta testing is done in the user’s testing environment.

Output

  • create 30-50 expressions per intent
  • get feedback from Alpha/Beta users
  • refine dialog based on user feedback

Resources

Deliver

In the Deliver phase, you will monitor and maintain your digital assistant to ensure that your user experience is contistent and enjoyable. Follow these steps in the Deliver phase:

Review Logs

  1. Review conversation logs between the digital assistant and users in SAP CAI. Analyze if your digital assistant understands user requests and responds correctly. Find out more about Conversation Logs on the SAP Help Portal.
  2. Create about 50-60 more expressions per intent. This helps enhance the quality and accuracy of your digital assistant’s responses and improves the conversational experience.
  3. Review logs to enhance the dialog and address how to handle errors in the real environment.

Output

  • review conversation logs for improvements
  • create 50-60 expressions per intent
  • provide creative error handling

Resources