How to Design Effective Chatbot Buttons? 5 Effective Principles to Consider

Atman Rathod
Chatbots Magazine
Published in
5 min readJun 11, 2019

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Source — Dribbble.com

Whether while browsing a search engine, accessing a website or while shopping from an online store or while using a mobile app, you click on buttons to complete tasks. These clickable and actionable elements appear as the last frontier for a decisive action to take place. While using Chatbots also you click on buttons for certain actions. Businesses, business blogs use Chatbot for business growth and conversion through their websites and apps and buttons play an important role in this. Question is, do all buttons invoke reactions in the same manner? No, besides the so-called look-good factor, there is an array of elements that you need to focus upon as well.

If you can design Chatbot buttons that drive a lot of traction from users, you actually ensure optimum user engagement with the bot. No doubt, more engagement with the bot means increased business conversion for the respective website or mobile app where the Chatbots are used.

Let’s now see how to create such effective Chatbot buttons that are capable to boost engagement and conversion during your web or mobile app development endeavor.

The Benefits of Chatbot Buttons

Buttons are often sent during a conversation by the Chatbot for the person to click. Such buttons allow users to take specific actions instantly. Without requiring to type a query a visitor just by clicking on the button can select his query or issue. Similarly, a button can be offered as a real-time access point to another web page where the visitor was trying to go. So, buttons can actually do a lot of positive things for audience interaction.

Chatbot buttons are particularly useful for the new users who happen to have the least idea about how the app works or how to get benefited by it. This is particularly useful to sustain a lively conversation. Users can be distracted by an incoming message or a call and then a button appearing on the screen instantly can reengage the visitor.

Let us now have a look at the most effective ways to design the best AI Chatbot buttons that are capable to convert business.

1. Maintain a Short and Precise Copy

Source — Dribbble

Why simple attentive listening often comes as more than a help to solve a lot of problems, we often fail to listen to users and resultantly, fail to solve a problem. In the context of Chatbots, it is not uncommon to see visitors losing interest when they need to read and write too much during the conversation.

Instead of offering them a long paragraph of text describing what you want from your visitors, maintaining a shorter copy for the chat as well as clickable buttons can be very helpful and effective. This is a lesson learned by working agents that use live chat software to communicate with the users. Moreover, by using buttons the Chatbot can be prevented from using a lot of readable text in the conversation.

In this respect, it is important to understand the precise role of buttons in Chatbot conversation. Buttons can be effectively used to guide users to the FAQ page, to product pages, for setting an appointment or for other actionable areas that an app is trying hard to take users through.

2. Create Buttons for the Right Context

In a typical Chatbot scenario, a user needs to choose between a “yes” and “no” buttons as two binary options for opposite actions. But instead of using such point-blank binary options, the Chatbot conversation can get into more details of the context and buttons can be created representing context based options. This creates more scopes of business conversion than the binary choices of buttons.

For instance, if a Chatbot asks the visitor “Did you find the app useful?” with “yes” or “no” buttons, the answer can be negative on many occasions. On the other hand, if the visitor is asked “why he will recommend the app to others?” with two discreet options, there will be a lot of positive reactions and responses.

3. Easy and Accessible Chatbot Personality

Is your Chatbot behaving only like a sophisticated answering machine? Is it incapable to engage users with intonations and expressions that users prefer? Well, in that case, the Chatbot can be factually correct but is not capable to drive user engagement at all. These days brands focus on creating a lively customer relationship and a Chatbot with an easy and accessible personality can play a very significant role in this.

To ensure this, all the so-called industry jargons and complicated terminologies need to be avoided. Secondly, the Chatbot conversation should focus on specific user contexts and need. Lastly, the Chatbot must utilize all the intonations and linguistic expressions that can easily be understood and communicated.

4. Answer the User Expectations Clearly

Did you ever encounter a door with an inscription written in an unknown language? Well, this is what is faced by the users when they get a clickable Chatbot button without any idea of what it leads to. This is precisely why for Chatbot buttons, it is more than necessary to create a clear expectation.

Sometimes, just visual treatment with the buttons can be enough. Simple images or emojis used in place of a button can meaningfully explain what the button means and what action it leads to. To ensure at-a-glance understanding you can always use all sorts of options for buttons ranging from simple text, images or a measured fusion of both.

5. Keep the Number of Options Minimum

When browsing products or shopping in an online store the Chatbot can offer you a whole array of options. But, too many choices can only add to your confusion and can deter the process of purchasing to a great extent. This is why it is always said that the buttons work best when they are offered with a small number of options.

As most marketers and design specialists agree, 3 to 5 button options work best to drive traction and to make it obvious for the users to interact. Keep the number of buttons to a maximum number of 3 to 5 and you can be ensured of better conversion.

Conclusion

Finally, for creating engaging Chatbot buttons you need to put yourself in the shoes of the visitor or customer. Evaluate the reaction that a Chatbot button can generate and how it can negatively or positively impact the business outcome.

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Director & Co-Founder of @CMARIXTechnolabs, a leading #WebApp #MobileApp #EnterpriseSoftware development Company