Company
Date Published
Author
Cindy Chang
Word count
1426
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

We invented our Custom Bot chatbot builder to capture the complexity of human conversation in a visually comprehensible manner. We faced significant challenges, including how to represent multidimensional conversations in a flat structure. Our approach involved designing a linear builder with two key aspects: a "nav" or bird's eye view and an "editor" or focused view. To help teammates intuitively build complex flows within this structure, we introduced more system complexity by adding constraints such as lettered paths and branching buttons, which shielded teammates from complexity and helped them manage their conversation flow in a sensible manner. Our final design polished up the builder's visual and interaction details, structured navigation to function as a preview for the full conversation flow, and reduced unnecessary parts of the UI to focus on the conversation paths themselves.