Process

Tutorial feature

The diet bot is not supposed to be a one-time conversation bot, i.e. it has some sort of memory like what the user has eaten in the day. So after testing the initial version with a friend, where the bot would only tell users how to use it in a simple paragraph, I found that they still don't have a clear sense of what it looks like to interact with and make use of the full features of the bot. So I integrated a tutorial feature into SMS to lead first-time users through a typical day of using the bot.

Alexa and SMS combined

I've been considering if I want to build the product in Alexa skills or SMS bot, until later I realized why not have both and build the most suitable feature into each one. Therefore, I built the tutorial feature in SMS where users would be able to track the messages more easily. Whereas for more frequent users, justing talking with Alexa to do some routine work would be preferable to typing it in the chat. So I built the "log meal" feature in both SMS and Alexa and have them working on the same file.