I got feedback! This is a follow-up to the previous article. It’s best to read that first. I got some wonderful feedback from inspirational conversation designers, including the creator of the challenge. I’m doing this challenge to improve my design process. With that in mind I want to tackle as…

I’m doing Jesús Martín’s VUI Challenge to sharpen my skills. Jesus has a great deal of experience to share, and I enjoy doing his course when I have the time. Keeping my writing sharp is vital for great conversation design. I spend a few hours on each challenge within my…

Last year I interviewed my friend Jason F. Gilbert to discuss his approach to conversation design. As I’ve tried to get my head around this whole new area of design Jason has been a wonderful inspiration. He’s generous with his thoughts and advice, and hilarious too. I’m so glad I…

We know that writing is hugely important to conversation design. But I think there’s something else that is equally important and doesn’t get enough attention. Great writing will take you toward the final result, but the user…

In November 2020 I reached out to the conversation design community with a question: What do conversation designers need in their toolkit? This idea came from Steven King’s book ‘On Writing’. He suggests that writers use certain tools every time they write — grammar, style, vocabulary, etc. — and they…

It was at the first excellent VoiceLunch of 2021 that Allen Firstenberg said we should disagree more — his point being that we should avoid being an echo chamber as we all might benefit from the insights gained. I absolutely agree (off to a bad start there!). Allen’s suggestion made…

Sound brings the world to life. We listen all day (even when sleeping). Even people with partial or total hearing loss still respond to vibrations. I wrote this article as a quick introduction to important principles of sound, and why you should care about them. It’s for designers who are…

Words gain new meaning when said aloud — this can strengthen the message or undermine it. With this article I shine a light on how paralanguage can impact voice assistants. Paralanguage needs to be experienced to be understood — please listen to the included audio files :) Words on a screen. Words said aloud. They are not the same. Why is…