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When you think about it, conversations are at the heart of everything. Metaphorically speaking we converse with everything in our environment. And everything speaks back to us in the sense that we respond to what we hear, see, and feel constantly. We interact with the world, with other people, with nature, and more than ever with technology.
Conversation design is the art of designing these daily interactions with AI assistants, whether it’s chatbots, voice assistants or AI agents. The people taking on this modest task are called conversation designers. Conversation designers are what UX designers were during the rise of web interfaces in the ‘90s. And you might want to hire some now, because AI and conversational interfaces are shaping up to be the next big UI paradigm shift.
Progress might be propelled by technology, but adoption is driven by ease of use. You can invest in the best technology available on the market, but still build a chatbot that fails to deliver value to the business and your customers. That’s because building great chatbots is hard. Not only do you need to understand what people are saying, people need to feel understood.
You see, we are experts at having conversations. It comes so naturally to us that we don’t even have to think about it. But as it happens there are many unwritten rules that govern our daily exchanges, whether it’s at the coffee shop, during a Zoom meeting, or when engaged in casual conversation. Only by understanding these rules are we able to design elegant and meaningful experiences.
That’s where the conversation designer comes in. A conversation designer is someone who leverages their knowledge of language, technology, and human psychology to turn your AI assistants into a successful conversational partner. It might not be immediately obvious, but language and psychology are deeply connected. When designing chatbots and voice assistants, this connection shouldn’t be underestimated.
We view the world through a uniquely human lens. It’s the reason we see faces in the sky and why we like Disney characters so much. Research has shown that when we hear a voice, any voice, we automatically assign a personality to it – even if that voice is artificial. We make assumptions about who they are and where they’re from, and based on that we make split second decisions on whether we like them or not and whether we think they’re trustworthy.
You can take control over this process by designing with a clear persona in mind. If done right, customers are more likely to take your chatbot’s advice or be more forgiving when something goes wrong. Time and time again, we see that carefully curated experiences lead to better outcomes for your customers and your brand.
A common misunderstanding is that we need to get customers from A to B as quickly as possible. Instead, it’s much better to go step-by-step: a technique better known as ‘turn taking’. Taking turns is something we do intuitively as people. We go back-and-forth to allow each other some space to breathe and process new information. We don’t consider it to be a conversation if someone is just having one long monologue.
When designing for turn taking, the conversations become longer, but easier to navigate. Breaking down information is much more effective than giving all information at once. For an enterprise client, we even did user testing to confirm that this step-by-step approach was rated much higher by virtually all testers. Tellingly, none of them were able to accurately report how many steps the conversation took: instead, they all reported that it was easier. Ultimately, ease of use is a proxy for being quick.
Conversation designers that know this will design dialogues that lead to higher containment, positively affecting our bottom line. And there you have it: the business case for conversation design.
The idea that you need to invest in good design to deliver business value is especially important as LLM-powered agents take centerstage. In the early days, there used to be quite some magical thinking with regards to chatbots. This was due to a combination of overoptimism and a lack of understanding, comparable to some of the sentiment around generative AI.
As it turns out, LLMs struggle to adhere to all sorts of design principles and you still need folks that understand how to create successful conversations to tell good from bad. With the rise of LLMs, we risk a replay of the past where we again see developers inside the organization pushing for innovation without the support of people that have demonstrable conversation design expertise and know how you turn a promising technology into a great product that your customers will love.
The best you can do as a future-forward organization is to build a sustainable conversation design practice. If you want to know what it takes to do that, CDI has you covered. We’ve helped build and train CAI teams for global brands such as Adidas, HP, Vodafone, Nespresso, Lidl. Looking to build a conversational AI team or take your program to the next level? Don’t hesitate to reach out.
