Compare & Understand: Designing Chatbot Applications With a UI Mindset — Part 1

Author(s): Sanjay Krishna Anbalagan

Originally published on Towards AI.

This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.

As Generative AI evolves, chatbots are becoming a cornerstone of modern applications. Traditionally, front-end applications rely on UI-based interactions — users click buttons, type in text fields, and navigate menus to complete tasks. However, with the growing prevalence of conversational interfaces, there’s a new paradigm shift: front-end design is moving from UI interactions to conversation-based interactions.

This shift doesn’t mean we need to completely rethink how we design applications. Instead, by building a mental model that compares chatbot applications to UI-based frontend applications, we can simplify the design process. In this part, we’ll explore how chatbot design can mirror traditional UI logic, helping developers and designers create seamless conversational experiences.

Before we dive into conversation design, let’s first explore how traditional UI-based applications are structured. In a typical UI, users interact with a series of interconnected tasks to complete actions. Each task is part of a larger network that drives the application.

Take, for instance, a banking application. The following sequence of actions would take place in a UI-based environment:

Search for a Customer: The user types the customer’s name into a search bar, applies filters, and presses enter.Select the Desired Customer: From… Read the full blog for free on Medium.

Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor.

Published via Towards AI