Example Interaction Script

After working on a list of jobs to be done creating Example Interactions is one of the next steps in the design and planning process. In this step you will take the Job Stories and write example Dialogs that get the User's job accomplished. These Example Dialogs will then be used to create Behave tests before development begins. Once development begins the Example Dialogs also become the basis of the Dialog and Vocab files within your skill. Once development begins you will need to update your Behave tests to utilize the Dialog files instead of the natural language responses that were written in the design and planning phases. The process is described in more detail in the example below.

First Draft Interaction Scripts

Begin by writing the example interactions of your skill from start to finish based on your Job Stories. At first don’t worry about organizing the interactions. Just try to write down as many examples as possible. If you skipped ahead and

Here is an example of a First Draft Interaction of a Moon Phase Skill.

	Example Interaction 1
User	Hey Mycroft, what’s the moon phase?
Mycroft	Today’s moon is Waning Crescent with 55% illumination

__	Example interaction 2
User	Hey Mycroft, when is the next full moon?
Mycroft	The next full moon is on May 7th.

__	Example Dialog 3
User	Hey Mycroft when is the next First quarter moon?
Mycroft	The next First quarter moon is April 30th

__	Example Dialog 4
User	What phase of the moon is May 2nd?
Mycroft	The moon will be Waxing Gibbous with 68% illumination on May 2nd

__	Example Dialog 5
User	Hey Mycroft, what’s the moon phase 5 days from today?
Mycroft	The moon will be Waning Crescent with 5% illumination on May 20th

__	Example Dialog 6
User	Hey Mycroft, can you tell me the moon phase for a certain day?
Mycroft	Yes, what day would you like to know the moon phase?
User	May 15th
Mycroft	On May 15th the moon will be waning crescent and 45% illuminated

__	Example Dialog 7
User	Hey Mycroft, what are the phases of the moon?
Mycroft	A lunar cycle lasts 29.53 days and consists of four principal phases, the new moon, first quarter, full moon and third quarter. Would you like to know more?
User	Yes
Mycroft	The apparent shape of the moon between New Moon and First Quarter is known as Waxing Crescent, the apparent shape between First Quarter and Full Moon is known as Waxing Gibbous. The moon is half illuminated in both First Quarter and Third Quarter, the use of the word quarter indicates the period within the cycle and not the illumination.

	Example Dialog 8
User	What's the moon phase on the next go around?
Mycroft	The next quarterly moon phase is the last quarter moon on May 14th

	Example Dialog 9
User	How many moon phases are there left?
Mycroft	I’m not sure I understood you, would you like to know when the next moon phase cycle begins?
User	Yes
Mycroft	The next moon phase begins with the new moon on May 22nd

Organized Interaction Scripts

The next step in the process is organizing the first pass of dialogs into groups. You may already have a good idea of what these groups of similar interactions are based on your Job Stories from the beginning phase. You can also think of these as the features of the skill. In the Behave format these groups or features are called Scenarios.

Scenario	When a user asks for the current Moon Phase
User	Hey Mycroft, what’s the moon phase?
Mycroft	Today’s moon is Waning Crescent with 55% illumination

Scenario	When a user asks for the next moon phase
User	Hey Mycroft, whe is the next full moon?
Mycroft	The next full moon is on May 7th.
__
User	Hey Mycroft, when is the next First Quarter Moon?
Mycroft	The next First Quarter Moon is April 30th.

Scenario	When a user asks for the next moon phase
User	what is the next principal moon phase
Mycroft	The next principal moon phase is the full moon, on May 7th

Scenario	When the user asks for the Moon Phase on a date
User	What phase of the moon is May 2nd?
Mycroft	The moon will be Waxing Gibbous with 68% illumination on May 2nd
User	Hey Mycroft, what’s the moon phase 5 days from today?
Mycroft	The moon will be Waning Crescent with 5% illumination on May 20th

Scenario	When the user asks for more information on Moon Phases
User	Hey Mycroft, what are the phases of the moon?
Mycroft	A lunar cycle lasts 29.53 days and consists of four principal phases, the new moon, first quarter, full moon and third quarter. Would you like to know more?
User	Yes
Mycroft	The apparent shape of the moon between New Moon and First Quarter is known as Waxing Crescent, the apparent shape between First Quarter and Full Moon is known as Waxing Gibbous. The First Quarter is half illuminated and is growing in illumination toward a Full Moon. The Last Quarter is half illuminated and shrinking in illumination toward a New Moon. A New Moon is not illuminated and not therefore not visible to the naked eye.

Scenario	When the user needs Help
User	Hey Mycroft, can you tell me the moon phase for a certain day?
Mycroft	Yes, what day would you like to know the moon phase?
User	May 15th
Mycroft	On May 15th the moon will be waning crescent and 45% illuminated
__
User	Hey Mycroft, how do I get information on the moon phases
Mycroft	You can ask me what the current moon phase is, the moon phase on a future date, or more information about moon phases.

Scenario	Error Handling
User	What’s the moon phase on the next go around?
Mycroft	For which day would you like to know the moon phase?
User	next monday

Scenario: Error Handling

Scenario	Error Handling
User	What’s the moon phase on the next go around?
Mycroft	For which day would you like to know the moon phase?
User	June 5th
Mycroft	June 5th is a Full Moon
__
User	How many moon phases are there left?
Mycroft	I’m not sure I understood you, would you like to know when the next moon phase cycle begins?
User	yes
Mycroft	the next moon phase begins with the new moon on April 23rd

Converting Example Interactions into Behave Feature files

Once you have finished creating you example interactions and you have done some rounds of testing with some users, then it's time to convert your Interactions into Behave Feature files. You can see an example of the first Scenario from the Example Dialogs converted to a Feature file below.

Feature: mycroft-moon-phase

  Scenario Outline: The user asks for the current moon phase
    Given an english speaking user
      When the user asks for "<the current moon phase>"
      Then "skill-moon-phase" should reply with "Today’s moon is Waning Crescent with 55% illumination"

   Examples:
     | the current moon phase |
     | what’s the moon phase |
     | what's the phase of the moon |
     | what is the moon phase today |

Converting Example Interactions to Flows (optional)

Some might think that creating the Flowcharts would be the first step in the process. After all the flowchart is abstract and doesn’t require full statements or prompts to be written. In a flowchart you just need to see the steps and decision points within the interaction. However, in practice the language used in the interaction can have such a great impact on the user’s input that is more important to start with Example Interactions and real statements and prompts first.

In a flowchart it's easy to add several decision branches to a step, but in practice the dialog necessary to effectively make the decision might require multiple steps. It's always best to start with the dialog.