In Class Exercise I: Wizard of Oz’ing Workflows

tl;dr: Simulate your bot’s workflow with an in-class group. Work in pairs and use direct messages on Slack as a substitute for real-time SMS and as a way to playtest your workflow. Try out the conversation, see if it works, spot errors and generally try and break your bot’s workflow. Use this to refine your interactions and understanding of the app you plan to build.

Learning Objectives

During the exercise, students will ‘act out’ their bots workflow. Using Slack, you’ll interact with a partner to test your expected workflow. Their goal is to try and break your bot, be unexpected and put your logic through it’s paces. Your job is to follow your bots logic and see where there are gaps.

By the end of this exercise, students will:

• have tested their conversational-ui and application workflow with at least one person
• have either validated the workflow as successful or identified opportunities to improve the end-user experience
• have collaboratively identified problem areas in the workflow and explored potentially more innovative ideas and approaches to building intuitive interactions
• have explored the interaction design of their bot’s workflow in an applied way.

Time Required

30 mins - 1 hour (depending on time)

Materials

• A workflow diagram (see final project week 1
• Slack

Instructions

We’re going to test your workflow. You’ll work in groups of two to do this. First of all, don’t show the workflow to your partner!

Here’s what you’re going to do:

Part 1. Act out your workflow

Have your partner open a slack conversation with you and use it to act out the conversation you might have with your bot by typing in the chat window. They will be an ‘end user’. You will be your ‘bot’. You should both play your parts! Begin the conversation and you should follow the workflow you’ve described. Assume, it’s up to the ‘end user’ to start the conversation (unless there are scheduled elements where your bot might reach out). You should respond as your bot. They should interact with you, etc. etc. Do this for about 5-10 minutes.

Advice for both:

• No speaking. Just typing!

Advice for the ‘bot’

• Don’t just wait for conversations. You could initiate them too - is there times in the day where it will reach out to a user
• Try to avoid doing anything that isn’t in your ‘script’. Stick to it and find its limits.
• Make notes are you go. Keep tabs of things that are problematic.

Advice for the ‘end user’

• Keep notes of what is unclear for you. Do the instructions make sense? Are the prompts clear?
• Keep track of pain points. Does a workflow feel too long or drawn out?

Part 2: Discuss

After you’ve gone through the workflow. Have a conversation and get feedback from your user. Reflect on the workflow and the experience of acting it out. Discuss what could be improved and how. Sketch out an improved workflow or not additions to what’s in your diagram.

You should:

• Revise the workflow diagram collaboratively.
• Sketch additions or improved workflows either on a new diagram or on top of the existing one.
• Note general improvements considerations, etc.
• Capture design recommendations
• Note potential optimisations to the interaction

Part 3: Swap

Now do parts 1 and 2 for your partners bot. Try out their workflow

Part 4: Rinse and repeat (time permitting)

Now try out the suggested improvements to your bot with a new partner.

Part 5: Reflect and Report out

In groups of 4-6, reflect on the process. Share your experiences and consider as a group what general design recommendations you would make based the challenges and opportunities you uncovered through this activity.

Each group should summarise their discussion with 2-3 main points (in less than a minute).