8 Streamlining complex flows
This chapter covers
- The effect of complexity for end users
- The effect of complexity for the business and support teams
- How to trade off conversational feel versus complex implementation
- How to simplify the user’s journey
Unnecessary complexity is painful for chatbot users and builders alike, and it often leads to bad business outcomes or delays in the deployment timeline. Building a conversation that feels simple and natural requires thoughtful design and empathy for the user’s situation. As designers and builders of these solutions, we aim to create an experience that helps a user reach their goal with the least amount of hassle or difficulty. Why should we be so accommodating? Because we need users to adopt or accept the solution in order to justify the cost of maintaining the technology.
Users will associate a “natural” conversational experience with “simple” or “easy to use.” An interface that is easy to use tends to result in the most successful outcomes. Conversely, an experience that has not properly considered the user’s perspective often feels disorienting, unnatural, and perhaps overly complicated. This can cause users to escalate, abandon the conversation, or fail to reach an optimal outcome.