Ruby Chatbot

UI/UX Design – Chatbot

About RiNo Nail Bar: RiNo Nail Bar is the most popular nail shop in Rino Art District, providing a whole spa experience from pedicures to acrylic powder nails. Their increasing popularity demands technology to help with the constant needs of their customers since they only take appointment customers. Their unique selling point is the hippest, most trendy, and most expensive nail salon in the Denver Metro area.

Goal

To help reduce the need for human receptionists to answer common questions and repetitive tasks, give customers instant responses, and guide them to other resources as needed.

Challenge

Being the first time using this software and making a chatbot, there is much information to research and tutorials to watch. I must ensure the flow is logical, intuitive, and easy to understand. I want to make Ruby sounds more human than a machine to create a positive customer experience. I believe avoiding repetitive questions is a big part of communicating more humanely.

Target Audience

Thanks to its prime location near the RiNo art walk, RiNo Nail Bar’s primary audience includes people living in the neighborhood, tourists, and bridal groups. Their audience ages 20-50 years old white female customers with income ranging from $50,000+/year.

Problem

At RiNo Nail Bar, Customers can make an online reservation through Facebook. The problem with this method is not everyone has a Facebook account, so they will need to call in to make an appointment which requires a receptionist to answer them. With their increasing popularity, several customers may call in at once, and the receptionist needs to put them on hold, which can decrease customer satisfaction. There are also problems with language and nail vocabulary that need more time for the receptionist to explain to the customers, which slows down the booking process and delays other calls.

Design Process

Research & Competitive Audit
I first looked at what other nail salons’ booking services look like, and they mostly used app booking or calling directly to the salons. Using chatbots can possibly put RiNo Nail Bar apart from its competitors. I also looked at other chatbots, such as Domino and Amazon, to learn how their conversation flow.

Designing the chatbot
Before creating Ruby, I spent quite some time watching Voiceflow tutorials. I thought I learned everything I needed to make Ruby, but sometimes I couldn’t figure out how to create specific interactions and needed to go back to watch the tutorials again. It shows that I learn better by actually working and making designs than by watching tutorials and trying to memorize everything. I created a flowchart before designing in Voiceflow, which helped me see what I might need to add. By making the flowchart, I can determine the start and finish points and make sure the experience is finished at the right step. I ran many tests to see if my design missing anything and adjusted the plan based on that. After that, I asked my friend to try out the prototype and get more feedback, and I changed the design based on his feedback.

Retrospective

Learning new software was exciting, and I had fun making this chatbot. The most challenging part was ensuring the flow was logical and that the chatbot sounded humanized enough for the best user experience. What I’m most proud of about this project is that in a short period, I could design a functional chatbot that can be used if needed. The Capture function is the most exciting, allowing the bot to gather and put the input into the output. It makes the experience more personalized and believable. I think I can utilize this function for my future projects, and I’m excited to gain more skills in designing interactive designs.