Selecting the Right Conversation Design Course
Your guide to choosing a course that will fit your career goals and your budget.
Conversation Design is quickly becoming a new career field with exciting products to work on and an ever-growing demand from employers. Inevitably, plenty of courses in creating chat and voice experiences are popping up, offering ways to break into this new industry.
However, with interaction designers and UX writers still unfamiliar with what Conversation Design is, selecting the right course becomes a challenge. At VTG, I often find myself advising practitioners on which course to take, and it’s not always the highly intensive CxD Training that we offer.
You may want to discover what this industry, which is expected to grow by double digits within the next ten years, is all about. You may just want the information you need to make investments, know how to create a skill or action, or attain certification and completely change direction in your career.
With this in mind, here’s a guide on how to choose the right course, whether you’re completely new to the field, or have some background in user experience (aka UX).
Keep in mind, the costs and course types listed below are just recommendations. Regardless of your experience and what you really want, there will always be more intense, and more expensive, options.
But first: know your intent.
Before choosing which course to spend money on, you want to know your intent. This is especially important if you want to make a bigger commitment, financially and energetically.
Whereas with other careers in design the emphasis is on prototyping, visual communication, and analysis, you may be surprised to find that Conversation Designers rely on a lot of technical knowledge.
The better you know your intent, the better you can manage your expectations when it comes to how much of the technical details you will have to learn.
One simple way to know your intent is to understand what you want at the end of the course: know if you want to get your feet wet, learn something very specific, or change your career.
I want to get my feet wet.
Let’s say that for now, you are interested from a place of pure curiosity but not enough to really get technical. Here’s where a free or low-cost self-directed course may be the better choice.
Udemy, for example, offers a self-paced course that will cover the basics and can be completed on your own time. If you have a free LinkedIn Learning subscription through your library or school, check out their Introduction to Voice UX course.
However, there are other, more costly options if you’re looking to get your feet wet and have a little help along the way.
If you already have some professional design experience, getting your feet wet may mean learning some technical basics.
Many of these options include pre-recorded classes and add-on live meetings with instructors where you can ask questions and get feedback on your projects.
If you’re looking to up the intensity, consider a bootcamp program. Be aware that the ‘bootcamp’ label can be applied to anything; a blog post, a book, a session at a virtual conference, the list goes on. In this context, we’re referring to courses that are short (usually a few months, max).
These options can cost anywhere from $300 to $1,000, on average. Bootcamp programs are considerably more expensive and can cost up to $3,000.
Looking for a list? Check out the Ultimate List of Conversation Design Courses.
Outcomes
- Understand how conversational apps work
- Know what goes into creating a script
- A hands-on project that you can complete at your own pace
- A basis on which you can understand what’s happening in the industry
- Knowledge in a field that you may (or may not) be passionate about
The Cons
The biggest disadvantage with these types of courses is that they do not provide you with practical experience that can be used on-the-job.
We’ve heard from a lot of people who went through different options. Many people who’ve taken a short self-paced course initially, tell us that when they got their first job they felt completely lost. Things are so different when you start designing hands-on, in a real-life scenario.
I want to learn something specific.
Learning to design exclusively for one service, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant greatly reduces the options down to a shortlist.
You may be part of a team that is working to create or modify a specific skill for Alexa. Amazon uses the term ‘skill’ in a way that is different from how it’s used more generally. In their lexicon, a ‘skill’ can be more closely compared to an app.
Amazon’s Designing for Conversation is free and open to anyone, regardless of their technical capability, and teaches the process behind creating a skill for Alexa.
Over on Google’s side of the street, you can Create Actions. In learning to build Actions, Google offers an online resource that teaches Conversation Design basics. In this context, you’ll learn about building experiences for different Android devices, such as phones, speakers, and displays.
As another popular example, you may want to create an app that can be activated on Siri.
The basics for most platforms are available for free online, but specific courses are offered on learning platforms like Udemy and Skillshare.
Outcomes
- Create a skill, action, or app for a specific interface
- Discover what’s necessary to configure a voice conversation
- Learn the template for one need that can (probably) be adapted for more than one use case
The Cons
If you’re just interested in learning a specific platform or skill, then you’ve probably already considered that focusing exclusively on one aspect of Conversation Design means you’re missing out on diversifying your skillset.
These learning opportunities are typically created for those in a specific marketing context. This means there is no focus on career development or being successful in the workplace, just the specific platform.
If you’re interested in learning more, that would mean having to take another course or find additional resources after you’ve attained specialized knowledge.
I want to change my career.
Knowing how much you want to change your career now will help you know how much of a commitment you want to make to studying Conversation Design.
Here’s where you want to consider a longer-term course, one with instructors who lead live classes. Courses designed to help you take your career to the next level will teach you the theory and practice of Conversation Design through live sessions and one or more capstone projects. Examples of these courses include Digital Assistant Academy and Voice Tech Global.
One thing you should expect before beginning a long-term course: roadblocks. This is one of the reasons why live instruction is so important, especially in a virtual class environment. Not only will you be learning new technical concepts, but so will your classmates.
While a brief one-on-one with an instructor is great for big questions, bigger discussions with a group allow you to learn by osmosis. You never know when a “small” question can turn into a major lesson.
The added benefit of the long, multi-week programs with live classes is that many of these options offer modules that can help you prepare for life as a Conversation Designer.
Outcomes
- Gain the theory and technical know-how of Conversation Design
- A starter portfolio of projects that showcase your skills
- Live instruction with industry experts
- A network of people who are also intent and passionate about Conversation Design
- An understanding of how to successfully collaborate with engineering and product teams in a professional environment
- Get ready for a successful job search
The Cons
By far, wanting to change your career means making a substantial commitment of money, time, and energy. This often comes with big expectations. But while the risk is big, there’s no way to measure what the rewards will be.
Patience will be necessary, with yourself and with the time it takes to get where you want to go.
Some key considerations.
Beyond the financial investment, there’s also the investment of time into the course itself; for yourself and the people in your life who will support you. Is there a reading list of books you’ve already checked off your list? What about one, or more, capstone project(s)?
Another thing to consider when it comes to costs is whether or not your employer will agree to cover some or all of the fees.
If you can show that a course in Conversation Design will align with your career goals and make you better at the job you love to do, there’s a good chance your employer will pay for at least a portion of the cost of a program.
Keep in mind that many times, this only applies if you’re studying at an accredited educational institution. If you have a course in mind, approach your employer and ask about tuition reimbursement.
The learning continues.
There will always be low-cost ways to keep your skills sharp or discover something new, which is helpful for anyone whether they’re a complete novice or an expert of twenty years.
- Books for Conversation Designers: click here.
- For resources (people to follow, posts, podcasts, + more): click here.
Your next step.
Before choosing your first (or next) Conversation Design course, you need to know what you want out of your time and investment.
No matter how big your budget, there is a course that will meet or exceed it. Knowing what you want will help greatly towards reducing a long list of options.
Understanding your intent means knowing if you just want to get basic information, learn a specific skill, or change your career. Match your intent with how much you expect to spend in time and dollars.
And if you’re interested in learning more about the technical side of conversational apps and services, VTG’s next post is going to be about APIs. Hit ‘Follow’ to be notified of when the new post is live.
Voice Tech Global’s next Foundations in Conversational Experience Design begins October 4th. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in Conversation Design, find the course details and syllabus here.
