Chatbot Studies: TechCrunch for Facebook Messenger

Chatbot Studies

Analyzing TechCrunch for Facebook Messenger

Chatbot Studies

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This is part of an ongoing series to understand what’s behind great conversational design in chatbots.

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Chatbot Studies


Strong social proofObviously, not every brand has such a strong social following to build a chatbot upon.

However, choosing the official brand page for a chatbot is not necessarily a no-brainer.

Most people still don’t know what chatbots are. So chances are high that people at the other end have a question they are trying to get answered.

In this case an onboarding option like “What can I help you with?” could be considered.



Chatbot Studies

Message Us For Updates chatbot-academy.comlet’s do this



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Chatbot Studies


OnboardingThis bot gets straight to the point, telling what it is and what it does without beating around the bush.

If you take the target TC consumer into account, something like “AI-based assistant” probably works.

However, some people might need a bit more info • How does it work? • What exactly will I get? • How can I manage what I receive?

Also, as mentioned before there is no option to contact TechCrunch directly (which might be intentional but could still leave users confused).



Chatbot Studies


Auto Opt-inWhich is OK, I guess. As long as you let the users know how they can manage their subscriptions.



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Vague optionsI really don’t know what I get if I tap on those buttons. Again, one option for further information about the bot would be nice.

Maybe I’ll get that if I tap on “Ok, what else?” Let’s give it a try.



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OK.That button label is definitely confusing. Search functionality at this step of the onboarding process makes sense, though.

Damn, now I have to think of a topic…



Chatbot Studies


Text-only inputThe search functionality is great, but sometimes people just want to explore a bot and play with it for a bit, rather than coming up with ideas on their own.

Some examples (in buttons) would really help the user reach the next step more easily.



Chatbot Studies


Search resultsGreat use of the carousel to display search results. However, I’m not sure whether it’s the most recent or most relevant stories.



Chatbot Studies



Wait. 2013? Don’t tell me the most interesting post about hashtags is 3 years old (and about Facebook).

Let’s look that up…



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Well, first off the bot seems to display the most relevant stories about a topic.



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Latest stories, are a bit more recent. Why can’t I choose inside the bot?



https://HashtagNow.co

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Latest stories, are a bit more recent. Why can’t I choose inside the bot?



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Custom thumbnailI like that!

Thumbnails get the biggest attention in carousel elements and should be considered while designing the bot experience from the beginning on.



Chatbot Studies


PersonalizationNow we’re getting to the interesting stuff. By subscribing to certain topics I can customize my news experience with TechCrunch.

Let’s hit that button.



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Nice. What does it mean, though? Will it be included in my daily recommendations?

Let’s try “more stories” to seeif they have something more recent.



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Reading optionsI really don’t want to leave messenger when I just want to check out what an article is about.

Really appreciate the “Read here” option. Tried several other bots that just push links and found out I actually never clicked on them.



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320 character limitThis is done exactly how it should be: It doesn’t just cut off after 320 characters, but waits for the right time and then offers me to go further or just leave it and explore the next article (from the carousel above).



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Nothing happeningStory seems to be finished.

OK, let’s be a bit more conversational and ask something.



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Small talkIt’s OK, but not a hit. The branding (AI-based assistant) helped manage our expectations before: we knew this wouldn’t be the funniest bot ever.

Let’s try something different than text input:



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Emoji inputToo bad, doesn’t work.

Interesting how the bot understands certain types of messages as search query and others not.



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Menu optionsLet’s see if this works and if there’s more I can do with this bot.

(Why didn’t the bot tell me I can type menu?)



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AboutAah, here’s the “About this bot” stuff I’ve been looking for at the beginning!



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Further descriptionsThere is so much space left, why not use it for further descriptions.

Maybe about the difference between the “most popular” and the “last headlines” section.



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Manage subscriptionsEasily unsubscribe from topics. It seems that it’s not possible to “unlink” some topic subscriptions from the daily digest I’m getting from the bot every day (e.g. for “breaking news” types of subscriptions)



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Time zone adjustmentsThis is awesome, why bury it in the “manage subscriptions” part of the menu?



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Location inputThis is what I love about the possibilities of chatbot design. That you can use different types of input that are just a tap away for the user.



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Thank you!

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Chatbot Studies: TechCrunch for Facebook Messenger

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