Workflow

Andrew's workflow can be divided into three stages, with the first two shown in the "Search Workflow" diagram and the last shown in the "Info Workflow" diagram. In the first stage, the user has not provided any info to Andrew - either the user just greeted the bot, or reset the workflow by ending the conversation or explicitly resetting it. Andrew will give an introductory explanation if the user greeted it, which will prompt the user to provide the location and date of the potential stay.

If Andrew is able to parse the location and date from the user's next text, the workflow moves to the second stage. Here, Andrew prompts the user for any additional criteria he/she might have (currently supported are the number of nights, minimum rating, and maximum price). When the user provides these or says that there aren't any, Andrew will go off to conduct the search, but not before letting the user know the results may not come immediately, since in this prototype the API call takes some time. If the API call succeeds and at least one hotel passes the user's additional criteria, Andrew will list the up to the first 3 results.

As the workflow moves to the final stage, Andrew lets the user know what the user can do in this stage. Currently, the prototype supports the user asking for hotel images, descriptions, and links (to the hotel website), in addition to asking to display the next 3 results. Andrew will fulfill as many requests as the user wants, provided that he can parse the request type and indicated hotel from the text; this final stage is a loop.

At any point in the entire workflow, the user can text Andrew for help, and he will respond with an info message depending on which stage the user is currently in. The user can also reset the workflow at any point, either by ending the conversation (e.g. saying "goodbye!") or by explicitly asking Andrew to restart (e.g. "let's restart").