Recent Developments in Chatbot Usability and Design Methodologies

Chatbots are rapidly growing and becoming prevalent in many applications, including healthcare, education, and consumer services. As such, it is crucial to design chatbots with usability in mind. Traditional usability heuristics call for error prevention, consistency, and task efficiency. The heuristics are suited for all types of user interfaces, including chatbots. However, chatbots have their unique challenges, and thus, recently, some researchers have developed sets of usability guidelines specifically for chatbots. However, there is a shortage of studies that summarize the latest advances in chatbot usability design and assessment. As such, this chapter covers the existing general and chatbot-specific usability heuristics and examples of usage. Moreover, the chapter presents the recent developments in chatbot design techniques and challenges.