We are supposed to talk more with our machines. Chatbots and smart assistants promise human conversations that make everyday life even easier. They are intended to be intuitive, delightful, and efficient. Many are not. Conversational design is a new design discipline, but the basics of it are not revolutionary. It covers how we work with language and content in all interfaces, including chatbots and smart assistants. Andrea base the principles of conversational design on plain language, user experience design, and sociolinguistics. Some of the principles are simple. Be upfront about the limits of technology and manage your users' expectations. Handle errors in a constructive and empathetic way. Utilize personality to create delight and maintain trust. Andrea have also been allowed to test these out – and faced how new technology can create both great opportunities and serious pitfalls for communication.

1. Conversational Design
– talk with your users
Andrea Othilie Rognan – content designer and plain language consultant
STHLM Xperience Conference 2019

2. «The holy grail of usability is to build an
interface that requires zero interaction cost:
being able to fulfill users’ needs
without having them do anything.»
Intelligent Assistants Have Poor Usability: A User Study of Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri
Raluca Budiu and Page Laubheimer, Nielsen Norman Group.

4. «Usability testing finds that both voice-only
and screen-based intelligent assistants work
well only for very limited, simple queries that
have fairly simple, short answers.»
Intelligent Assistants Have Poor Usability: A User Study of Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri
Raluca Budiu and Page Laubheimer, Nielsen Norman Group.

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6. “I never said she stole
my money.”

7. Robots have no
social intelligence, layers of meaning,
or real understanding of context.
We do.

8. So, what is conversational design?
Using our understanding of social
norms from natural human
conversations to shape design.

9. Manage the
expectations people
show up with
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10. X
Hi, there! I'm Bill. Hi!
I'm a tax chatbot. I can
answer questions you
have about your returns.
Fill out forms
Hand in returns
Deadlines
I understand short and
simple sentences.

11. «... users adjust their expectations
not based on knowledge prior to
initiating the conversation, but on
the information they receive
during the conversation.»
Help! Is my chatbot falling into the uncanny valley? An empirical study of user experience in human-chatbot interac=on
Marita Skjuve, Ida Maria Haugstveit, Asbjørn Følstad og PeFer Bae Brandtzaeg, SINTEF.

12. People will
see personality
– use it for good
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13. X
Hi! How can you help?
Hi, there! My name is
Roberta The ROBOT.
I'm your new robot
assistant. I can help
you with your tax
returns.
Hi! How can you help?
Hi, there!
I can help you with
your tax returns.
Feel free to ask me any
questions, and I'll
answer the best I can.

14. People can and will
expect a machine
to be polite
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16. A conversation is
give and take
– take turns
4

17. X
Hello. I would like to
set up an account at
your bank.
Hi! That's great!
We welcome you to the
bank! ! Just use your ID to
log in, and set up your
account.
We can also help you
terminate your old accounts
at different banks.
Do you need insurance? We
have that too. We have many
types of insurances that you
Hi!
Hello. I would like to
set up an account at
your bank.
I'd be happy to help you with
that. Would you like a private
account or a business account?
Private, please.

18. Be brief
5

19. X
Do you know what
time it is?
Yes.
Do you know what
time it is?
Yes. It’s two o’ clock.
X
Yes. I do know what
time it is. It’s two o’
clock, or 14:00:03 to
be precise.

20. The truth,
the whole truth
and nothing but
the truth
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21. X
Hey! Can you tell me
how many ducks there
are in Taizhou?
Look at all these ducks.
There are at least ten.
Sure!
Hey! Can you tell me
how many ducks there
are in Taizhou?
Taizhou city has
approximately 5000
ducks registered at local
farms, but the Chinese
government doesn't have
an exact or complete
record of all living ducks
in the city.

22. Context is everything
– know what’s
relevant
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23. X
Hey! Where can I get a
good cup of coffee
close by?
Coffee is really not good
for you, you know.
I only drink green tea.
Good morning!
There's a coffee place
called Kaffebrenneriet,
just two blocks away.
It has four stars!
Hey! Where can I get a
good cup of coffee
close by?

24. You’re going to fail
– fail graciously
Image: Username etuck77 on Reddit.com
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25. I’m sorry. I didn’t
quite get that.
Hey! I was thinking I
might sign up or
register with the
conference I don’t
know yet, but when is
STHLM?
I understand short and
simple sentences.
Could you try asking
again? Or see if any of
these options can help:
Schedule
Contact
X
I’m sorry. I didn’t
quite get that.
Hey! I was thinking I
might sign up or
register with the
conference I don’t
know yet, but when is
STHLM?

26. «We can also expect that the way in which
people will interact with conversational user
interfaces in the future will change, resulting
in new user behaviors as well as social norms
and user expectations.»
Chatbots: changing user needs and mo3va3ons
Asbjørn Følstad og PeBer Bae Brandtzaeg, SINTEF.

27. Manage expectations
Use personality
Take turns
Be brief
Speak the truth
Know what’s relevant
Be polite
Fail graciously
Thanks for listening!
Andrea Othilie Rognan
@andreaothilie
andrea@arkitekst.no
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