This is the second “News Bot” we looked at (See CNN.com). Unlike the CNN Chatbot, the Wall Street Journal bot takes a “Tutorial First” approach, which make sense for services that are more robust, complex or have a greater range of content and services to deliver. Unlike CNN, this bot delivers both news and financial information such as stock quotes and comparisons, so a “Tutorial First” approach seems like more of a natural fit.
For those unfamiliar with our terminology, by “Tutorial First” we mean that the application assumes that the first thing a user wants to do is get a tutorial of the application capabilities and functionality. Basically it tries to train user on how to use the application through tutorials or examples.
NOTE: This post is part of an ongoing series on chatbot applications. You can subscribe to updates if you want to follow the entire series.
Below is a transcript of a conversation with the bot:
Links:
Functionality:
- Allows users to get top news and receive news alerts
- Allows users to get stock quotes
- Allows users to follow and compare companies
Positive:
- Best Practice: Welcome message sets appropriate tone and is intuitive
- Tutorial First approach is good and seemingly comprehensive (but maybe a bit long)
Negatives:
- Minor: Comes across as a bit complex (but powerful). It's not obvious how to view or explore all the capabilities and preferences
- Responses are wordy, could be more succinct
- Doesn't understand HELP keyword, but then tries to help you
- Doesn't user personalization (user's name for example)
Platform and Technology:
- Unknown at this time