1. Let’s talk about Conversation Design
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
BRK3301
Let’s talk about Conversation Design
Vishwac Sena Kannan
Senior Program Manager
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2. Explosive growth 10,000,000+ messages/day 1,000,000+ unique users/day
190,000+ developers
14,000+ active bots
1,000+ companies
100+ new features (so far!) this year

3. What is a Bot? TYPE TAP TALK Channels Connected Services
Cortana
Facebook Messenger
Connected Services
Custom – Direct Line
Skype
Intelligent tools
Bing

4. Conversational and Business Logic
What is a Bot?
Platform
Platform services
HTTP
REST Endpoint AI
Intelligent tools
{ Your Code }
SDK
Bot builder SDK
REST Endpoint
Direct Line Protocol
Conversational and Business Logic
Canvas Aware
Context Sensitive

5. What is the Bot Framework?
Channels – 1’st and 3’rd party
Hosting services – Azure Bot Service, Conversation Designer
Tools – Emulators, Webchat, Client controls, SDK’s, Analytics
Customer’s
business logic and data
Bot Connector
Why?
Implements standard protocols
Modeling conversations is hard. Tools help!
UI across multiple canvases is hard. Cards rock!
Language understanding is hard
Common and well understood patterns C#
BOT BUILDER
Third-Party
Bot Controls
LUIS
Query over database via Azure Search
Form filling
Q&A
Goals
Start simple. Add complexity. No dead-ends
Bot adapts to the user, based on context
Composable and intelligent controls to manage complexity
Skype
Bing
Web Chat
LUIS
Skype for Business
Cortana
Direct Line

6. 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Demo
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7. Conversation Design 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
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8. What makes a bot great? Not how much AI it has
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
What makes a bot great?
Not how much AI it has
Not how sophisticated the language model is
Not whether it uses voice or not
Not whether it uses Buttons/Cards
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9. 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Great bots are like great apps; they appeal to users because they do whatever they're trying to do WELL
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10. Building conversational experiences
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Building conversational experiences
Language understanding:
Utterance → [domain X intent X slots] LU
Dialogue:
Conversational flow/ model between bot and user
DIA
Language generation:
Spoken, display strings for the agent LG
User Experience
Cards on-screen or speech-out for given turn in a conversation UX
Business logic
Business rules that help direct conversational flow
<>
Speech Recognition
Speech → Utterance SR
Text to speech:
Utterance → Speech
TTS
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11. Cognitive services LU DIA LG UX <> SR TTS Cognitive Services
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Cognitive services LU
DIA LG UX
Business logic
Business rules that help direct conversational flow
<>
Language understanding:
Utterance → [domain X intent X slots]
Dialogue:
Conversational flow/ model between bot and user
Language generation:
Spoken, display strings for the agent
User Experience
Cards on-screen or speech-out for given turn in a conversation
Cognitive Services SR
TTS
Speech Recognition
Speech → Utterance
Text to speech:
Utterance → Speech
Vision
Speech
Language
Knowledge
Search
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12. Ubiquitous conversations
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Ubiquitous conversations
1st and 3rd Party Channels
Custom app or website
Custom devices
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13. Designing for Bot’s Input/ Output
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Designing for Bot’s Input/ Output
TALK
TAP
User
TYPE
Bot
TYPE
TALK
CARD
1st and 3rd Party Channels
Custom app or website
Custom devices
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14. Type, Tap & Talk – where & why
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Type, Tap & Talk – where & why
Great for communication apps
User is already typing in these experiences
Type
Supplement conversational experiences in custom apps/ website
On PC/ mobile form factors
Users are accustomed to click/ tap experience
Tap
IoT/ speech-first device form factor and experience
Assistant experiences like Cortana
Talk
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15. Demo ContosoCafeOnTheWeb, different channels 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
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16. Modelling conversations - Types of dialogue
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Modelling conversations - Types of dialogue
Single turn conversation
Modelled like simple question and answer pairs
Typically there are no follow up questions from the user
No bot-initiated questions either
E.g. Q&A, Facts, Answers
Requires collecting pieces of missing information required for task completion
On-the-rails conversation.
Multi-turn capable; but can be single-turn
Can include business logic to direct conversational flow
E.g. Ticket booking, form filling, Order stuff
Structured directed flows
Context carry-over
Open ended conversation in a specific domain or intent
Multi-turn capable
Context (domain, intent, entities) carried forward across conversation
E.g. Search refinement
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17. Demo ContosoCafeOnTheWeb 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
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18. Qnamaker.ai One of the Microsoft Cognitive Services
Build, train and publish a simple question and answer bot based on FAQ URLs, structured documents or editorial content in minutes.
Offers a no-code experience to build single-turn conversations
Supports a variety of content sources you could start from –
Existing FAQ pages
Import question and answer pairs from .tsv, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xlsx
Friendly user interface to enter question and answer pairs in the knowledge base table
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19. 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Demo
Qnamaker.ai
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20. Conversational experiences
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Conversational experiences
Easier and more natural
Traversals, less steps (e.g. dinner reservation)
Devices with limited or no display surface/ typing is not an option or is cumbersome (e.g. Xbox, Invoke)
Multitasking (e.g. control music while writing a doc)
The Good
Setting up language understanding to allow for conversational tangents, corrections, forward- slot filling
Deciding the right conversation model for your scenario
Environment (e.g. speech in a noisy environment)
Adapting to context – device as well as user
The Challenge
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21. Conversation Designer
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Conversation Designer
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22. Conversation Designer
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Conversation Designer
One stop shop development experience
Seamlessly brings together several aspects of bot development—LU, LG, UX, Dialogue
Visual authoring experience to build conversational bots
Clear separation between conversation logic vs. business logic
Conversation runtime orchestrate bot conversations
What are we building?
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23. Conversation Designer
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Conversation Designer
Building bots is a multi-role collaborative effort
Learnings from Bot Framework community as well as first-party Bot development (Cortana)
Visual tool to help author E2E Natural Language conversations that users can type, tap or talk to
Modelling conversations in code behind can be challenging
Why are we building it?
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24. Conversation Designer Covers all aspects of bot development
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Conversation Designer Covers all aspects of bot development
Conversation Designer
LUIS integration
Script trigger
Simple reply
Script action
Dialogue action
Simple and conditional response template
Speak vs. display
Cards, designer and preview
JavaScript code
HTTP wrapper
Azure Functions
Language understanding:
Utterance → [domain X intent X slots] LU
Dialogue:
Conversational flow between agent and user including logic that directs flow
DIA
Language generation:
Spoken, display strings for the agent LG
Cards on-screen or speech-out for given turn in a conversation UX
Bot’s business logic/code behind
<>
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25. Architecture overview Conversation Designer
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Architecture overview Conversation Designer
LUIS.ai LU
Author/train
Bot connector
Author
Developer’s Azure subscription
Website with bot assets + code
Runtime deployed as website extension
LUIS runtime deployed locally
Bot.agent
Bot.js
Cards.json LU
Bot activity
Bot activity
Bot app authored using
Conversation Designer
Save
User
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26. Demo Conversation Designer 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
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27. How do the pieces fit together
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
How do the pieces fit together
Authoring
Bot hosting
Start with Conversation Designer to prototype, design your conversations
Implement business logic in Conversation Designer for E2E bot development
Azure LU
SDK
Implement the conversational model using Azure Bot Service (Bot Builder SDK)
LUIS.ai LU
Implement the conversational model using Bot Builder SDK
Custom cloud
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28. Summary and call to action
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Summary and call to action
Conversational experiences are everywhere –
Custom app/ website, custom devices & 1st and 3rd party channels
Incorporate Microsoft cognitive service APIs for your next bot
Design & build for Type, Tap, Talk
Adapt conversations based on context –
Tailor experiences based on device capabilities
Follow & deeply understand the user so conversations are natural and effective
Model your conversational flows effectively
single turn, contextual carry over .vs. structured flow
Pick the right tooling + hosting model
Azure – Bot Builder SDK, Azure Bot Service Code, Conversation Designer
Custom cloud – Bot Builder SDK
Check out
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29. Other relevant sessions - Ignite
5/20/2018 1:36 AM
Other relevant sessions - Ignite
THR3075 – Getting started with the Microsoft Bot Framework
Robert Standefer
Sep 26th 10:20AM – 10:40AM; OCCC South – Expo Theater #8
BRK Bot Framework patterns and practices straight from our customer
Robert Standefer; Cindy Noteboom
Sep 26th 2:15PM – 3:30PM; Hyatt Regency Windermere Z
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31. 5/20/2018 1:36 AM
© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.