Guide to Designing Personality for Chatbots
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This article explores why personality design for chatbots is essential and provides guidance on defining and showcasing their roles/personalities.
Sitting in the living room with a song on repeat, I started writing late at night. Winter has truly arrived in Shanghai, reminding me of the light snowfall last December. I wonder when the first snow will come this year?
In my previous reading notes, I mentioned that one way to make chatbots sound more natural is through "personality." Coincidentally, I came across Stefan Katz's article on Medium titled "The Ultimate Guide to Chatbot Personality," so I’ll continue learning while summarizing.
Overview:
Stefan first explains why "personality" is important for chatbots and the relationship and differences between roles and personalities.Next, he delves into how to define a chatbot’s role, personality, and scenarios where the chatbot can "shine."
Step 1: Define Its Role
Step 2: Define Its Personality
Using the Five-Factor Model (Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism)
Step 3: Showcase Its Personality/RoleNow, let’s dive into the main content (some parts may be omitted for brevity).
As chatbots become more prevalent, their purposes are gradually evolving. From mere "digitalization," they have quickly become genuine extensions of brands by engaging in meaningful conversations with customers.
Whether your chatbot answers questions, provides purchasing advice, resolves and categorizes customer issues, or simply engages in casual chat, it is recognized as a crucial brand ambassador for your organization.
Therefore, chatbot interactions must be scrutinized at the same level as traditional brand experiences. Just as outstanding human customer service interactions can positively reinforce a brand and enhance goodwill, so can exceptional chatbot experiences.
Your chatbot’s conversations with customers, whether good or bad, represent your brand and reputation.
Moreover, research shows that "personality" is a key factor in people’s engagement and repeated use of chatbots, which is also a critical metric for chatbot success.
Tuva Lunde Smestad found that chatbots with distinct personalities scored higher in "practicality, enjoyment, and appeal" compared to purely functional ones.
This makes sense intuitively. In human interactions, we are drawn to people with distinct personalities and are more willing to spend time with those we find interesting.
Similarly, chatbots with distinct personalities are more engaging than dull ones, even when the conversation duration and frequency of interactions are the same.
When designing human-like interaction experiences, a human-centered approach is essential. Many factors must be considered, including:
Since experienced visual designers have already written excellent blogs about the third point, we’ll focus on the first two.
In real human interactions, we are not only attracted by someone’s profile (their interests, hobbies, work, passions, etc.) but also fascinated by their behavior and reactions in different situations.
Likewise, for chatbots, we must design these factors with the end-user in mind to maximize engagement.
Unfortunately, many online resources confuse or ignore the distinction between roles and personalities. Thus, it’s important to clarify this difference first.
A "role" defines a person’s attributes, while personality refers to their internal emotional and behavioral drivers—the unique combination of how they behave in different contexts.
For example, a role might include a person’s job, hobbies, interests, goals, and passions, while personality encompasses how they interact with their environment.
To illustrate this difference: In my company, new team members are asked to prepare an introductory overview and share it during their first team meeting.
Photos of their dogs, hometowns, or even their favorite college sports teams—these details are part of their role, while the way they present them reflects their personality.
Many online resources encourage readers to define their chatbot’s personality by considering things like its favorite movies or sports teams. I question this approach because these are attributes of the chatbot’s role, not indicators of how it interacts with users.
A well-defined personality should guide how the chatbot responds to user input—whether it’s friendly, outgoing, or neurotic.
For example, how should the chatbot answer the question, "Where would you like to go on vacation?" This is why both role and personality are crucial for designing a complete and engaging user experience.
After clarifying the distinction and importance of roles and personalities, let’s explore further.
First, you need a deep understanding of the role. Whether your chatbot is used for e-commerce sales or answering employee payroll questions, it will inevitably stray from the "happy path" at some point.
Like human conversations, interactions often deviate from the intended script. Why? Because users ask unexpected questions. Regardless of the chatbot’s purpose, common questions like "Where do you live?" "What’s your zodiac sign?" or "Tell me a joke" will inevitably arise.
When defining your chatbot’s role, consider the following:
Who is your target audience? Who will interact with your chatbot? What are their interests, hobbies, and other attributes?
While everyone is unique, it’s important to create something your audience can resonate with.
Would a chatbot that sounds like a mother figure succeed in recommending jeans to young adults? Probably not.
What does your brand represent? If it’s a personal brand, what image does it convey?
Why does your chatbot exist? Consider the type of human role it’s simulating and ensure it reflects that.
For example, a chatbot handling noise complaints from neighbors should differ from one selling rock concert tickets.
Aim to clarify your chatbot’s role in 1–2 slides. A clear role serves as a reference for the entire team, ensuring consistent dialogue flows and themes, and facilitates meaningful interactions with users.
Here’s a simplified example of a chatbot’s role:
Tips for Developing a Chatbot’s Role:
Always Start with the Role
Define what your chatbot is before designing its visual appearance or traits.Avoid Defining Gender
While assigning a gender might be appropriate in some cases, I’ve found that leaving it undefined is often more effective. Ensure the chatbot’s name and appearance reflect this.Several frameworks exist to quantify or define personality. My team and I prefer using the Five-Factor Model (FFM) to conceptualize chatbot personalities.
The FFM outlines five factors driving our behaviors and emotional responses. People score high, low, or somewhere in between for each factor, and the combination of these scores defines their core personality.
In the FFM overview below, each factor describes behaviors associated with high scores in that trait.
Lower scores in certain factors do not mean they can be ignored; instead, they may lead to opposite behaviors.
For example, those with low scores in 'Openness' find satisfaction through perseverance and are characterized as pragmatic and data-driven.
When designing your chatbot, it is crucial to understand how it scores across these five factors, as this will determine its reactions in different scenarios.
For instance, in the previous character example, our chatbot Charlie would respond to the same question in various ways depending on its FFM (Five Factor Model) scores.
As shown below:
Although somewhat exaggerated, the examples above illustrate how different factors lead to distinct types of responses. When extrapolated to the entire process or conversation, these responses, in turn, create different user experiences. Of course, your chatbot may not be as extreme and could exhibit a combination of different personality traits.
In the previous sections, I outlined how to define a chatbot's role and personality and provided examples of how they influence the chatbot's 'what' and 'how.' Beyond general tone, where else can we prominently showcase your chatbot's personality?
While it's important to outline what your chatbot can assist with here, the welcome message is undoubtedly a golden opportunity to let its personality shine. Does it greet users with 'Good evening' or 'What's up?' Does it comment on current events, engage in self-deprecating humor, or get straight to the point?
Given the current limitations of chatbot technology, there will inevitably be times when your bot fails to recognize a user's question or intent. This is a great chance to delight users with an explosive or highly personalized response while still prompting them to rephrase their input—rather than simply replying, 'Could you repeat that?'
Similar to the previous point, when a user asks a question beyond the chatbot's capabilities, you might opt for a humorous or playful response instead of a plain error message.
In natural conversations (your chatbot can say goodbye before the user closes the chat window), ensure it has completed a meaningful interaction with the user. Leave a lasting impression, resonate with the user, and make it stand out—perhaps by including your company name at the end.
Businesses are increasingly deploying chatbots to interact with customers, almost making them a standard. This requires designers to consider how to maximize the user experience.
A chatbot's role and personality resonate with users, ensuring high engagement and returns while enhancing the organization's brand image through meaningful conversations.
Defining and differentiating role and personality is crucial. Role is about 'who: what,' while personality is about 'who: how.'
Defining the role provides engaging content for the chatbot's responses, while its personality determines how it reacts in different situations.
Of course, there is no 'good' or 'bad' role/personality for a chatbot. The best scenario is when they align with your brand, reflect it, and resonate with users.
Above all,
Five Factor Model
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-2795422