Waston Assistant Templates

project overview

This project introduced a new feature - a catalog of templates that provides pre-built conversations covering a variety of industries, topics, and needs.

Duration

~ 8 months

Role

Primary designer, UX designer

UX designer, Visual designer, Product manager, Developer, Researcher

Collaborators

Watson Assistant is an AI chatbot software designed to make it easy for business users to build without technical expertise.

But if that’s the case, why are users dropping off after their first session?

First time user state

the problems

1

Users are intimidated by the prospect of starting from scratch.

2

Users are unaware of many features and best practices when it comes to building their conversations.

3

They’re forced to invest a significant amount of time and energy into their chatbots.

4

Users are unable to see the value of Watson Assistant in a timely manner, and abandon their projects.

Based on competitive research done by the team, nine competitors all have the same feature that we lack.

Catalogs of pre-built content to help the user get started.

the hypothesis

A catalog of pre-built content…

1

Helps users to learn and retain core concepts of Watson Assistant.

2

Reduces drop-offs as users begin to understand how this brings value to their end user.

3

Assists users in building out a robust assistant, faster.

usability testing

To validate our initial research and hypothesis, we brought our wireframes to a moderated usability test.*

Key insights

-Participants felt they had a better understanding of how to create conversations after interacting with the templates.

-Participants said they would definitely use templates in the future

-Some found the catalog overwhelming or hard to navigate

-Ability to personalize templates was important

-The previews could be more indicative of template content

*Note: This is the phase in which I joined this effort. Content before this point summarizes work done by my team, and is provided for context.

catalog design

Shortly after the conclusion of testing, the lead designer left the team and I became the solo designer in charge of this work.

Taking into consideration our testing, team feedback, and familiar catalog patterns, I began making updates to the designs.

Featured updates

  • Reduced visual overwhelm

  • Tiled catalog format

  • Side panel for filtering

Before

(Designed by teammate)

After

testing, round 2

For our second round of testing, I worked with one of our team’s designated researchers. With the updated designs and two Figma prototypes, we prepared for an unmoderated usability test.

The goal was to get more detail on the insights from round one, as well as see if we improved on the usability issues.

Key insights

-Significant chance that interacting with templates will improve user performance when creating from scratch.

-Some found the catalog unnattractive

-There was some confusion with navigation between templates

-No blocker issues

ready to deploy

With no blocker issues, we were ready to clean up the designs and make the final updates for our MVP.

Featured updates

  • Visual enhancements

  • Updated design to reduce use of modals (therefore reducing navigation confusion)

post-mvp workshop

After our release, we promptly started working on some design and feature updates.

The team was having trouble getting aligned on how to present one of the more technical features, so I ran a mini workshop with the team to ideate and sketch.

Agenda

  • Context on the issue

  • Inspiration hunting

  • Crazy 8s sketching exercise

Results

  • Stakeholder alignment

  • Idea validation

  • Improved experience

more updates

Our post-MVP designs began with lots and lots (and lots) of iteration. Fortunately, another UX designer and a visual designer joined to collaborate on this work.

Two out of many iterations we did, trying to incorporate the new features into the layout

the final look

Knowing that this would be the last update we could make for a while, we decided to go big or go home.

My collaborators and I were able to push through a visually exciting experience that still accounts for our users’ needs.

  • Ability to select multiple templates

  • Visual enhancements

  • Featured categories with correlating tags

Featured updates

Psst… I designed that green illustration!

impact

-75% of accounts that went live, used a template

-68% of all new users added a template in their first session

-250% more likely that users will reach a testing milestone

First time user state without templates

First time user state with templates

Takeaways

  1. Adapt, but advocate

    • Introducing a new feature is a big deal, and everyone wants to share their two cents. I strived to be amenable to new ideas without making changes that didn’t benefit the experience.

  2. Don’t delay value

    • Users were dropping off because they weren’t willing to invest time and energy into a product they didn’t see the value in. By accelerating their build, we accelerate their time to value!

  3. Go big or go home

    • As I mentioned, we made some big changes to the look and feel of the catalog. What I didn’t say is that I was pretty hesitant to share something so drastic with the stakeholders. The other designers on my team taught me that the worst someone could say is no, and that’s worth it if it means advocating for a better experience.

  • "One of your many strengths is that you constantly assess whether the experiences that we craft are indeed helping users accomplish their goals and addressing their problems. You excel at identifying these requirements from the onset of any design effort - which ensures that your work is infused with empathy and deep understanding, which ultimately provide a tangible, real-world impact to our users."

    B.N., Design Lead

  • “I would most definitely consider you a leader in design – not just within our team and our missions, but in the ways that you’ve disseminated/advocated for our work. I have particularly been impressed by the ways you’ve led our workshops bringing various individuals, perspectives, and thoughts together, and synthesizing them in a way that allows everyone to feel heard.”

    J.U., Product Manager

  • "I have definitely appreciated your approach to problem solving, creative spirit, ability to solicit/consider/implement feedback, and iterate quickly. You make being productive an absolute pleasure while maintaining exacting focus on professionalism and producing top of class work. "

    P.K., Content Strategist