PinnedThe Education of a Conversation DesignerA HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE TOUR Leaving aside the question of “WHY? (and if you’re pursuing a career in conversation design and haven’t heard either “Why???” or “What’s THAT?” …Conversational UI9 min read
Dec 2, 2021AI, Entertainment and Audio — Where’s It Going?Sure, it looks like three words that got randomly selected from a game of “refrigerator poetry”! But… I’m giving a talk (yikes) at Voice 2021 and would love your thoughts! The last time I sent out some loose thoughts on a talk I was giving, I got GREAT feedback and…4 min read
Nov 22, 2021A Cure for Loneliness?This New Yorker piece ran last May, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It details a program in New York State that gives robotic cats and dogs to lonely senior citizens — with amazing success. Entitled “What Robots Can — and Can’t — Do for the Old and…Aging1 min read
Nov 16, 2021Voice Needs a Dominant Design SystemI think that there’s a serious disconnect between what users expect from interacting with the internet and what Voice delivers as an interface. We’ve all been developing apps and skills on our own. …Voice User Interfaces5 min read
Nov 12, 2021What is the UI for “No UI”?I’m coming at this with a fair degree of humility. There are many, many people in the Conversational Design and Voice community who have been doing this a lot longer than I. If anything, I’m hoping I add a newcomer’s perspective to our work. I’m preparing a talk for the…Vui4 min read
Nov 11, 2021Why Meta is a bad idea: “Affluenza!”I’ve been wondering why Facebook / Meta seemed like such a bad idea. Cheryl Platz has articulated it beautifully here: Affluenza and Design As our success increases, our ability to make contextually informed choices decreases. What are we overlooking?cherylplatz.medium.com1 min readWhy Meta is a bad idea: “Affluenza!”I’ve been wondering why Facebook / Meta seemed like such a bad idea. Cheryl Platz has articulated it beautifully here:Affluenza and DesignAs our success increases, our ability to make contextually informed choices decreases. What are we overlooking?cherylplatz.medium.com----
Nov 1, 2021Is META developing the next generation of Voice Apps?Voice has to be social. Every leap in adoption of the internet has been driven by social media — whether it’s Friendster and MySpace or Twitter and Messenger… META is building SoundBites. It’s a window into the future of voice. From the earliest days of the web — you know…Meta3 min read
Oct 28, 2021Bots and Voice Aren’t Easier to Use… Yet.This is what I think is holding Voice back from becoming the powerful evolution it could be. (Just as a note… I really feel like I should begin every post with “this is a highly personal account…” There are people in the world of Voice who have been doing this…UX Design2 min read
Oct 27, 2021Humor in Bots: A continuing conversationThe excellent Jim Rowe-Bot (with whom I usually agree) posted some comments on LinkedIn about Humor and Chat bots. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t think it’s a good idea. I have some thoughts. Spoiler alert: I do. I spent the better part of my career writing comedy (Letterman. Jon Stewart, Cheers…Conversation Design2 min read
Oct 25, 2021The Good and Bad about How We Hire Conversation DesignersAfter spending the better part of this year learning as much as I could about Conversation Design, UX design and AI training, the past week saw me filling out application after application for roles in these areas. It’s true that a lot of companies are looking for people to do…Conversation Design3 min read
