_ Process - Assistant (VZ)

VZ (100,000 ppl)

Research, Discussions, Flows, Prototypes, Guidelines

UX Research

Scoping appropriateness (use-cases, data privacy, proactiveness). Generative Methods: Questionnaires, Interviews, Diary Studies etc.

stimuli, lo-fi prompts personalized in live wizard-of-oz

synthesizing findings via Clustering, 2x2s.

Pull Key insights (e.g. people generally use 1 primary assistant) for stakeholder communications

Collaboration, Alignment, and Stakeholder Buy-In with distinct departments.

Alignment on ML-UX strategy. Impacts Design work, Business, and Dev.

Analyzed and Identified Distinct ML Strategies.

Design POV of different ML strategies - ABSTRACTING Mental Models and User Expectations they afford. (Metaphors like ATM, Bank Teller, Bank Manager).

Design Team connected with Tech + Biz. Got buy in from VP of CX.

Conversational Flow Designs - for Stakeholder Demos and Real Production Content (e.g. Order Status)

Workshops to help align on use cases. Considering: existing work, quantitative metrics, qualitative transcripts.

Also consider Resources (Timeline, Infrastructure, Domain) – to determine the type of Conversation Design that is 1. appropriate, 2. possible.

Human-2-Human Dialog Workshops (either Brainstorming or Pulling-in popular Conversations).

Cleaned up H2H

Becomes Key Categories - which then help scope Sub-Domains (at various hierarchies) along a (versioning) timeline. ( e.g. Order Status (Delivery vs Pickup), Return Status, Refund Policy )

Classical Flow example. (Other formats: Stories, Spreadsheets)

leverage simple prototyping tools to quickly iterate and mitigate gaps in our Conversation Designs

work with teams (Tech, Biz, Legal) - to iterate different parts of these flows and ensure they’re permissible. Shipped in IVR + MVA.

Prototypes help mitigate gaps

Wide range of tools for different internal communication purposes

from siri shortcuts (+VO + OS Accessibility features) …

… to RASA, TF - for more complex designs (e.g. multi-intent inquiries)

Also Buy-in oriented Visual and Motion Design

Visual

tactical audio-interaction design for errors + interuptions

conveying granular Interactions, and conversational design features ← garnering more significant buy-in

Involved in variety of domains, inc. Emotional Domains (Bill Shock), and Proactive Domain (Network Outage). Helping establish universal frameworks.

Guidelines, e.g. UI Guidelines, includes considerations of multiple potential UX dimensions ...

key dimensions are highlighted in 2x2s - e.g. Bandwidth vs Case Complexity

Assistant States Guidelines

Multimodal + Accessibility design guidelines too → …

Altogether; Company-wide Assistant Guidelines …

Covering Visuals, Audio Patterns, Personality (Copy), and Dialog Patterns.
(Post: Work also utilized in "Supercharging Convo Design")