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Topic Creation

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Posted on by Cym

Hi there,

Is it better to create lots of simple topics that only have one or two branches or is it preferable to have a Topic with multiple branches as sub-topics? For example, I could have a single topic called COVID that branches into lots of sub-topics, or alternatively I could have multiple topics called, for example Apply for COVID Leave, COVID Vaccination etc. Which is the best way to go?

Thanks 🙂

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Topic creation & management

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peterswimm Microsoft Employee on at

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It depends on how heavily the topics would overlap for NLU detection. If overlap shows they heavily overlap. and there is no clean way to sort them with utterance choice, you should go with the single topic and menu approach.

You can also use multiple topics but only have one master topic have the trained utterances, which would then route to the destination topic. The primary reason to do this is to simplify the view for topics for bot authors so you can see an entire dialog at once versus having a huge sprawling dialog tree.

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sriram M 6 on at

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Hi,
The answer to your question ultimately depends on your specific use case and the goals you are trying to achieve with your topic organization. However, as a general rule of thumb, it is often better to have a smaller number of broad topics with multiple sub-topics than to have a large number of narrow topics.
Having a smaller number of broad topics with multiple sub-topics can make it easier for users to navigate your content and find what they are looking for. It also makes it easier to ensure that related information is grouped together, which can help users to make connections and gain a deeper understanding of your content.
On the other hand, having a large number of narrow topics can make it more difficult for users to find what they are looking for, particularly if they are not familiar with the specific terminology you are using. It can also make it harder to ensure that related information is grouped together, which can make it harder for users to make connections and understand the context of the information they are reading.
In the case of COVID, a single broad topic with multiple sub-topics may be more appropriate, as there are many different aspects of COVID that users may be interested in learning about, and having a single broad topic can help to ensure that all of these sub-topics are easily accessible and well-organized.

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peterswimm Microsoft Employee on at

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Reading books on narrative design can be very helpful here. Questions to ask yourself:

* Is my subquestion the most popular item in the subtopic? Then maybe it deserves a more direct prompt versus making the user play 20 questions.
* Use slot-filling questions to fill context for the branches in the subtopics, that way if they say the correct number of ways to answer the question it can skip more quickly to the relevant answer or result.

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