4 Things Every Conversation Designer Should Know
Conversation design can be fun, challenging, and frustrating. It can be all of those at the same time.
In the past 18 months, I have had the opportunity to work on a large number of projects and it has provided me with tons of insights about what it takes to become a conversation designer. Here are some of the things I have learned.
1. Every project is different and all projects are the same
Surely, every company has its own style. Its own brand identity, core values, tone-of-voice, and business processes. As conversation designers, we can’t just copy stuff and implement dialogues in ten different places at the same time.
All bots would talk the same, right? On top of that, every brand has its own use cases, interfaces, and integrations that will present your conversation design team with a unique set of challenges…
So how do we manage this?
The answer is a standardized, proven-to-work design process.
For every project at every company in every field, you can implement the same design process. Simply follow the steps: from gathering requirements, to sample dialogues, flowcharts, WOZ-testing, and long-tail design. I’ve seen it implemented in finance, healthcare, and insurance businesses. Big telcos. Universities. Public broadcasters.
So whatever the challenge turns out to be — start designing your conversations using our well-defined step-by-step process.
Because it works every time.
2. You have to know the rules to break the rules
I don’t like rules. Never did. But if there’s one rule I will happily follow, it’s this one.
When you present yourself as the expert in the room you have to come prepared. So when you say you’re a conversation designer, that deals with language, you have a responsibility to know basic linguistics. You have to understand the concepts of turn-taking and the Cooperative Principle. You need to be able to break down conversations and identify its working parts: acknowledgments, discourse markers, confirmations, etc.
In doing so, you will understand how and when to apply them.
So the next time you run into a problem that asks for a tailored solution… you can break the rules. The big difference is — you will break them consciously. And as a result of that, you’ll be able to defend your design choices to other team members and/or stakeholders.
You see, it fosters responsibility and accountability. Because being creative is not about coming up with stuff that no one else can think of. It’s about making good design choices and being able to tell others why you did it.
3. Your first draft is really bad and that’s a good thing
Everybody that has ever written a story knows this: your first draft sucks.
Funny enough, that’s the whole point of a first draft. It’s about jamming it out as quickly as possible. Because only after finishing your first draft is where the writing actually starts. Because writing is all about editing. It’s about polishing. It’s about the Wizard of Oz-test and doing an expert rewrite.
So what’s my advice here?
Don’t get too emotionally attached to what you write. Try and get something on the board as soon as possible and collect as much feedback as you can get. Use that feedback, rewrite a few prompts, and test again.
Only then you will be able to turn good copy into great copy.
4. At the end of your project, that’s where it all begins
Running a big conversational project takes a lot of effort. We define our goals, work together in design sprints, bring engineers, designers, and business owners in the same room and follow all the steps in the conversation design process. After weeks, or sometimes even months of hard work, the end of the project is in sight.
It is the big moment you’ve all been waiting for. The moment where you set your bot free.
But just like in The Lion King when Simba is born, that’s where the whole journey starts…
Your users will start to engage. Now you need to analyze the data. To collect quantity feedback and based on your research start optimizing. Over time you will gather more and more insights. And if you do it right, your bot will continuously grow and become smarter.
You might even succeed in creating a bot that is able to connect with your users on an emotional level and built meaningful relationships. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?
A few last words.
So in the end, it is not about finishing the project. It is not about becoming the greatest writer in the world or being the most creative one in the room.
No, being a conversation designer is about working together and being able to share your ideas with others. It’s about shaping the future and, fundamentally, about how we want robots and humans to communicate with each other.
