Product Feature: Autocomplete
Problem
Users of chatbots are often unfamiliar with its capability - what it can do and what it can't. This caused a bad user experience and disappointment in interacting with chatbots. A way to set expectations and some guidance for users therefore will go a long way in improving the user experience. Working with a team of engineers, we came up with the idea of autocomplete within our chatbot. Autocomplete is not a new concept: Google, Amazon, and many other commerce sites have excellent autocomplete suggestions that helped users complete their queries. In this use case though, it is a little different as it is in a chatbot. The goal is not to help users find a product, the goal is to give suggestions on what the user can ask and get answers to, with a preview of the answer to common FAQs, speeding up the search process and improving the experience.
Solution
Using our own widget design, I started to explore ways to use autocomplete in chatbots. One of the major use case of chatbots is to find answers to common questions quickly. There are also more complex use cases of more transactional nature. I tested both of them in a pull-up drawer.
Common FAQs
The hover state allows users to preview a part of the answer, helping them determine if a certain FAQ is what they are looking for before committing to the full answer. This ensures users get answers that are highly relevant to their queries.
Transactional Use Cases
I created a product feature that is unseen of in other chatbots. In order to allow suggestion of intent-based queries, yet allow users to customize to their own needs, I used a rectangle indicator to guide the users to type in their own information before sending to the bot to search, further speeding up the search process.
Demo
Usability Tests
We tested the autocomplete bot with 13 participants using User Interview.
Overall Analysis: Users found autocomplete suggestions to be helpful (11/13), easy to navigate (12/13), and visually appealing (12/13)
Participant Quotes
- It showed me what responses/questions are preloaded so I could save time and click as opposed to typing.”
- “I liked the search bar suggestions that came up when I was typing my questions. The search bar spurred me to ask other similar types of question as well.”
- “The suggestions were very helpful in identifying questions I hadn't thought of but wanted an answer to.”
- “Search bar suggestions were helpful in narrowing down topics. After a few words in the question, usually the topic I'm interested in is suggested.”