Building Bots by Intuition – Designing the Node-Based User Interface for the #1 Leader in Conversational AI

Cognigy is one of our technology partners and a leading provider of customer service automation through conversational AI. For many of our chatbots, we have been using its platform Cognigy.AI, which we were asked to rebrand. An exciting task in two respects, because not only do we work with the bot platform on a daily basis, but Cognigy was also in the process of evolving from a startup to a serious competitor of Google Dialogflow and IBM Watson. Accordingly, this evolution had to be reflected in the design.

Cognigy had created a minimum viable product (MVP) at the time that we could build on. For the visual alignment in the premium segment, it was important for the brand to appear more serious and mature without slipping into conservatism. We succeeded doing so with a more intense, clearer color palette and refined typography. In addition to the new homepage for Cognigy.AI, we also designed other products in the client’s ecosystem, such as the Cognigy Live Agent.

It was also crucial to ensure a more user-friendly and thus future-proof navigation of the bot platform Cognigy.AI. Numerous new features had caused the user interface to become larger and more complex. We integrated them into the navigation to be easily found and, most importantly, reworked the node-based logic.

In Cognigy.AI, conversations are built using nodes with very different functions. Sometimes they are pure text or question nodes, sometimes they are linked to conditions that influence the course of the conversation and, for example, make the chatbot switch to another flow. Most of this is done without code.

Therefore, it was all the more important to design the interface in such a way that it could be quickly understood, especially by non-coding users. Simultaneously, we kept the color guidance system to simplify the work with the updated software for already existing users.

Cognigy.AI will continue to grow with numerous functions in the future. We have therefore designed the interface using a module system that can be expanded whenever necessary. Finally, we have documented all elements in a style guide and a pattern library—so that Cognigy.AI can react to future developments in a user-friendly and brand-compliant way at any time.

To allow Cognigy.AI to be experienced as a high-quality tool in the premium segment, we have also enriched the software with micro interactions and animations for more joy of use. This playful approach turns building even complex bots into a positive user experience.

The new interface, along with the sharpening of the brand, is likely to have contributed to Cognigy being named a leader for enterprise conversational AI platforms by Gartner® alongside giants such as Google Dialogflow and IBM Watson and, also in 2022, receiving a series B funding of over 59 million Euros.

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