Frequently Asked Questions
These common questions and their short answers are taken from Diana Diebel and Rebecca Evanhoe’s book Conversations with Things: UX Design for Chat and Voice. You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.
- What do you mean by “conversations with things”?
This book is about designing for conversational interfaces—any technology that people talk to, whether they’re speaking out loud to it or typing. Think of things like voice assistants and chatbots, or any interface where conversation is the primary input or output.
We call these interactions between people and talking technology conversations with things to emphasize that while they mimic person- to-person exchanges, these computerized conversational partners aren’t people. There’s a rundown of these technologies (and a whole bunch of useful definitions) in Chapter 1, “Why Conversation Design?” - Does my conversational product need a personality?
A great question, and one that’s hotly debated. Short answer: Yes. People will perceive a personality no matter what, so you want to be intentional in how you design it. We say that the primary job of a personality is to serve the user and the goals of the interaction. But other considerations, like gender and race, carry a lot of weight. You can see our framework for designing a personality in Chapter 3, “Crafting Trustworthy Personalities.” - How do I document my designs for a conversational interface?
Whoo boy. This a conversation we’ve had with a lot of people and teams. Our overarching viewpoint is to work with your team to figure out that documentation sweet spot: enough, but not too much. To be more concrete, we advocate for flow diagrams as an essential conversation design tool (but any form of documentation has its pros and cons.) Read all about it in Chapter 6, “Documenting Conversational Pathways.” - I have a lot of questions, but just a little time. What do I need to read?
There are a couple paths you can take. If you need a crash course
in design, it’s worthwhile to ground yourself with linguistics in Chapter 2, “Talking Like a Person,” and then focus on conversation design pillars in Chapters 3 through 6. Those chapters will give you the basics you need to get something together. If you’re trying to establish process on your teams, you may want to skip straight to the last three chapters—Chapters 9 through 11. And if you’re more experienced, try Chapters 5, 7, and 8. - What’s your stance on ethics and privilege?
First, to acknowledge our own privileges and biases, we are white- presenting, cisgendered people who have not personally experienced things like long-term disability or being unhoused. We both had access to a college education, and we entered conversation design when it was relatively easy to get entry-level opportunities.After a combined 20 years in the tech industry, we’ve seen firsthand how people (end users and employees both) can be marginalized, erased, and harmed. We aren’t experts on inclusion or social justice, and many others are, but to us, it’s an essential part of the work that should never be left out. We are committed to creating an inclusive, equitable, anti-racist field where all are not just included but valued. To that end, this book weaves in ways to bake ethical thinking into your processes, and concludes with a chapter on what inclusive design looks like in conversation design, Chapter 11, “Designing Inclusive Conversations.”
