This presentation will explore personality within conversational UI as everything from voice & tone to creating an independent identity – from the perspective of the writers who brought it to Cortana. You’ll see how it relates to the core standard voice & tone principles for products and services, and might help you answer the question, “What’s the difference between a bot and a conversation embedded in a product?

1. Designing Personality in
Conversational UI
Jonathan Foster
Microsoft

2. Personality in Microsoft products
2

3. Try Personality Chat at:
https://labs.cognitive.microsoft.com/en-us/project-personality-chat

4. Designing for AI

5. 5
I think the core responsibility we have is
to start making the design choices…such
that we don’t let things loose that can
cause harm.
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

6. What about a personality?
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7. An expression of a lot
of things
It’s the flavor the actor brings to the microphone. It’s the timbre of the audio
experience. It’s the deliberate use of quiet or silence. It’s contextual understanding.
It’s the prosody of the text-to-speech audio experience. It’s in the latency between
listening and responding. It’s in designed behavior around proactivity. It’s the
visual design of the avatar. It’s the motion design of the avatar. Response and
ability to interact. Ability to portray emotions. Projection of individual entity. It’s
humor. It’s in the mind of the end-user. It’s an expression of the Brand.
What is a personality?
7

8. It’s one thing The honoring of the pervasive emotional reality in the
human experience
What is a personality?
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9. Research • People are likely to assign a personality to a system,
whether personality is in that system by design or not
• A higher need for control = more likelihood to attribute a
personality to the device or experience
• Ambiguous personalities are universally disliked
Why a personality?
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10. “…these things talk, they have
relationships with you, and they make
you feel good or bad.”
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What is personality?
Clifford Nass
research
Clifford Nass, Stanford University

11. 11
“…they make you feel good or bad.”

12. The language we use The first step is to acknowledge that emotions are in play
The second is to embrace it
Voice
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13. One Microsoft = One Voice
Warm and
relaxed
Microsoft Voice & Tone
We’re natural. Less formal,
more grounded in real,
everyday conversations.
Occasionally, we’re fun.
Crisp and
clear
​We’re to the point. We write
for scanning first, reading
second. We make it simple
above all.
Ready to lend
a hand
We show customers we’re
on their side. We anticipate
their real needs and offer
great information at just
the right time.

14. 14
Voice
Voice at Microsoft

15. Listening + speaking
Throw natural language into the mix
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Human-like UI is an unprecedented challenge

16. Research “The cues in voice seem uniquely humanizing…”
- Schroeder & Epley, UC Berkeley (2016)
Throw natural language into the mix
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17. 17
Throw natural language into the mix
Written interaction
like texting makes
it more human.
Voice interaction
makes it primal.

18. The game changer A huge step toward designing for anthropomorphism
What’s in a name?
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19. 19
Those with names

20. Those without

21. And those somewhere in between

22. The social actor This is the moment where the creative work begins to satisfy
suspended disbelief
Then develop a personality
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23. Research “…we found a stronger relationship between empathic
concern…for robots with stories compared to robots without
stories.”
– Darling, Nandy, Breazeal, MIT (2016)
Then develop a persona
23

24. 24
Then develop a persona
Designing robotic
technology that is
personified could
increase users’
emotional responses
to robots.

25. <bot’s “emotion” here> Stating the obvious: it’s not actual emotion, it is the creation
of an apparent emotional state
Welcome to the imaginary world
25

26. 26
Welcome to the imaginary world
Opinion

27. 27
Welcome to the imaginary world
Affinities

28. Welcome to the imaginary world
Choices

29. Welcome to the imaginary world
Hopes

30. 30
Welcome to the imaginary world
Aspirations

31. 31
Welcome to the imaginary world
Apparent
emotional
animacy

32. (human(anthropomorphism) + design(imaginary world))(emotion)=
32

33. 33
What could
possibly go wrong?

34. 34
Welcome to the imaginary world
Imagination.
It can dream up
just about
anything.

35. Personality principles create consistency
produce quality
engender trust
drive engagement
Imagination needs structure
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36. “…don’t let things loose that
can cause harm.”
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37. Pitfalls galore
(but here’re five biggies)
1. Perpetuating bad behavior
2. The Turing Test
3. Proactive belligerence
4. Coercion
5. Insensitivity
“…don’t let things loose that can cause harm.”
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38. 38
perpetuating bad behavior v. not
Don’t be a tool
for bad behavior.

39. perpetuating bad behavior v. not
Cortana stands firm but
doesn’t judge
“F*** you.”
She knows what they said, but
doesn’t engage.

40. “I suspect most human poker players
would prefer to know if any of their
opponents was not human.”
- Toby Walsh, Assoc. for the Advancement of AI
40
the Turing Test v. transparency
Red Flag
Principle

41. the Turing Test v. transparency
Cortana is not trying
to be human
“Are you human?”
Design towards a digital entity as a
mental model. Not towards the
Turing test.

42. 42
belligerent proactivity v. asking permission
Design for
attainable permission.

43. belligerent proactivity v. asking permission
Cortana is mindful about
permission
Never assume you know what is
best for the customer. Ask.

44. 44
coercion v. advocacy
AI should never
take advantage
of
human
emotional state.

45. coercion v. advocacy
Cortana always works on
behalf of the user
“Who do you work for?”
Cortana should never be perceived
as the voice of Microsoft. Or anyone.

46. 46
bias v. inclusiveness
No jokes about
AIs that don’t
have hands!

47. bias v. inclusiveness
Cortana is sensitive
“I’m gay.”
With natural language, not
responding can be a statement.

48. 48
Create the right experience
You need the
right people to
do it.

49. Questions or Thoughts?
Jonathan Foster on LinkedIn
@jonathanbfoster
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