The project started with the goal of enhancing user efficiency and productivity through the implementation of an AI chatbot. It began with an existing skeletal chatbot demo, which served as the project's foundation. Our goals were to refine the user experience and maximize the potential of this tool.
Brainstorm
After identifying a use case, I put myself in the shoes of the target audience, the sales team. I explored the skeleton demo on my own and brainstormed some improvement ideas that aligned with our project goals. These brainstormed ideas laid the foundation for our later design solutions.
Understanding the AI Landscape
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly emerging technology trend embedded in a variety of products and services. Since this project marked my first experience in AI design, understanding the current AI trends and patterns was crucial for the design process.
Market Research and Analysis
I began with some market research with another Visual Designer. Together, we discovered several AI products currently available to users.
Some products we explored included:
Google Bard
Gamma App
commonalities:
Chat-based interactions: answer questions, provide information, and engage in conversations with users.
Visual Feedback: visual feedback includes elements like loading animations, progress indicators, and data visualizations, which help users understand the AI's actions and responses.
User Assistance and Documentation: AI solutions often provide user assistance features, including documentation, tooltips, and help guides, to support users in making the most of the AI's capabilities.
differences:
Some have history tabs: allow users to revisit their past interactions, view previous search results, or access their conversation history.
Multi-Language Support: supports a wide range of languages, allowing users to interact with the AI in their preferred language.
Design Focus
Here are some design focuses that have been set up at the start of the process.
By incorporating these design focuses before working on solutions, we want to create a user experience that is intuitive, efficient, accessible, clear, and simple. This not only enhanced user satisfaction but also optimized the value and utility of the AI bot in helping users analyze their uploaded files.
Intuitive Design:
The interface must be easy to understand, reducing the learning curve for users.
Efficiency-Oriented Design:
Minimize user effort, making tasks quicker and simpler.
Accessibility Inclusivity:
Ensure all users, including those with disabilities, can access and use the platform.
Clarity in Decision-Making:
Present information clearly for better-informed decisions.
Simplicity and Essentialism:
Focus on core features, avoiding unnecessary complexity for a user-centered experience.
Let's introduce the user persona to identify the target audience for our design.
User Persona
Design Iterations
The whole design went through multiple iterations, aiming to reach the minimum viable product before the showcase. Each iteration represented a step toward improving the user interface and functionality.
The design team continued to iterate, addressing issues and enhancing user interactions. Finally, after multiple iterations, we reached the final version of the design.
Throughout the design process, seeking and incorporating feedback and critiques has been one of our top priorities.
I actively reached out to my team members, including full-time developers, UI designers, UX designers, and content strategists within the Avanade X team. Their feedback has been invaluable in evaluating and improving the visual, functional, and content aspects of the design solution.
Moodboard & Color Palette
In our design process, our team used a moodboard to curate our thoughts, ideas, color schemes, and moods. This moodboard serves as a visual reference and source of inspiration for the visual choices.
Our color palette consists of three primary elements:
Neutrals: Black and greys to ground the design with a sense of balance
Primary color: Blue provides a sense of trust and professionalism
Secondary color: Green is a friendly color associated with growth, positivity and forward actions
Four Flows of Platform
Our platform is structured around four primary flows:
If we have more time we would:
User Testing:
Implementing user testing to continually improve the chatbot's performance and usability
File Deletion Option:
Offering users the ability to delete their files stored in the database, enhancing control over their data.
Physical Annotations:
Providing physical annotations on an uploaded document so the user has another way they can interact with their document
Database Backend:
Storing user account information, uploaded files, and previous chat histories for easy re-access and reference.
Things I Learned During the Project
One significant takeaway from this project is the importance of collaboration and communication. Working with people in different specialties in the process, maintaining transparency in my work, and providing progress updates to the project lead, stakeholders, and team members are crucial for our MVP deliverables.
Another lesson learned is the necessity to prioritize the most important tasks. When facing time constraints, I've come to realize that we may not always be able to fulfill all our ambitious goals. Therefore, focusing on feasible functions and features within the limited time is essential.
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