CHATBOT
NARRATIVE
F8
NLU
Overview
Humani was a 20-hour branching narrative chatbot featured at Facebook's F8 conference in 2016. Users guided Jessie Humani, a young woman navigating a topsy-turvy quarter-life crisis, through pivotal decisions about her career, housing, and relationships.
My role
I directed structural and narrative changes to the overall experience ahead of F8 launch. I managed a team of writers, implemented emerging Messenger features like structured messages and quick replies, and maintained narrative consistency across branching paths. I led quality assurance and testing before launch.
Humani
2016 · PullString · Facebook Messenger
1.
USER CHOICE
How do you keep users interested in an extended chatbot experience?
Engagement in a long-form narrative depends on consequence. Users needed to feel their choices mattered. I ensured branching paths had meaningful weight, that Jessie's responses reflected the user's choices, and that each session ended with enough unresolved tension to bring users back.
Branching narrative
High persona
2.
DEVELOPING A PERSONA
How do you build a character who's delightful and realistic?
Jessie's personality was the engine of the story. She had a high-energy, emoji and chat-speak fueled style, but was also charming and vulnerable. I created style guidelines that kept her voice consistent across a team of writers. The goal was a character who felt like she was texting you, not performing for you. You'd want to see what crazy thing she would say or do next.
3.
RICH CONTENT
How do you push the experience beyond just text?
Besides making user's choices consequential and the main character compelling, I also incorporated high quality art assets as well as novel interaction components like structured messages. The images were vibrant and playful, helping users visualize Jessie's world. The interactive chat thread components made things feel more real and added novelty to the experience.
Structured messages
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