The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is an intermediary organization funded by the German government. It promotes international exchange and co-operation in academic studies, science, research, language, and teaching as the largest German conveyor organization. The DAAD´s Website is visited heavily by foreign students wishing to study in Germany. Because of the large amount of content at the DAAD Website, visitors sometimes had to search several pages before locating the information they needed and the DAAD´s Information Centre received hundreds of e-mail inquiries a month. The client required:The DAAD required an Interactive Assistant to answer questions at the DAAD English language Website about studies and research in Germany, and to help the user navigate through the many pages and topics presented there. The usability of the DAAD´s website should be enhanced for customers and time spent in search for information should be reduced. The complex search forms are to be made more accessible by filling out fields with information garnered during the conversation by the Interactive Assistant in order to reduce the workload of the DAAD´s Information Centre. How we made it:
We built Interactive Assistant Dany with friendly, cooperative and positive tonality which let the visitors feel that they are taken seriously, and to make navigation easy. Numerous mechanisms allow Dany to note items of information mentioned by the visitors without specifically responding to them, such as country of origin, desired university, study status and study subject. These were used to personalize subsequent answers and to give country-specific information relevant to the visitor. If the visitor wishes to search for a course, the search starts automatically based on information collected up to that point. Because a large portion of the target group uses English as a second language Dany was fine-tuned to be more tolerant of spelling variations.
Result:
A DAAD study showed a reduction in e-mail inquiries during a period when a seasonal increase of circa 35% was to be expected. Quoting this DAAD study, Dany offers visitors more user-friendliness and a certain entertainment value: "The software is not only able to carry out dialogues; it offers multifaceted possibilities of statistical evaluation." Thanks to the Interactive Assistant we discovered which areas were under-represented at the site and which Website improvements should be implemented. Moreover the search functions in the international degree program database and the university guide could be optimized.
