Key takeaways
🔀 Conversational UX transforms design into a natural and intuitive conversation between the interface and the user.
🔎 Conversational UX is different from traditional UX mainly because it focuses on dialogue rather than navigation.
💁♀️ Conversational UX emerged from social habits and technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing.
🤖 Chatbots, virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, as well as smart speakers and IVR phone systems, are just a few examples of conversational UX.
✔️ Clarity, empathy, accessibility, and context awareness are some of the key principles of conversational UX.
⚠️ Over-automation and privacy concerns are some of the challenges that remain within conversational UX; however, the future seems promising.
If you have ever used a customer support bot or have asked Siri to play a song, then you have already experienced what conversational UX is.
Conversational design is an approach to design that allows us to communicate with technology in the same way we talk to people.
Natural dialogues are the core of this UX design approach. Conversational UX is on the rise, and it is one of the most important design trends that shapes the way we build and use digital products.
What is conversational UX?
Conversational user experience is all about designing systems that allow humans to talk to technology through natural, intuitive conversations.
Instead of navigating through menus on websites or application screens, users can simply ask a question.
It speeds up interactions and gives users convenience in human-like conversations with their devices.
Conversational UX vs traditional UX
While traditional UX focuses heavily on visual interfaces such as menus, navigation bars, and CTA buttons, Conversational UX focuses on words and commands.
Hence, interaction becomes a conversation between the user and the device. Here are the main differences between conversation UX and traditional UX.
Characteristic | Conversational UX | Traditional UX |
Navigation | Talking or typing in a natural way. | Clicking, tapping, browsing, and navigating a system. |
Learning curve | Intuitive, human-like interaction and minimal learning curve | Users need to learn the navigation in order to complete a step. |
Personalization | Highly personalized experiences based on context. | Personalization is usually limited. |
Speed of navigation | Fast and direct. | Multiple steps are required for a user to reach their goal. |
Emotional connection | This approach is human-like. | Feels more robotic. |
Importance of conversational UX
Fast interactions
Conversational UX speeds up interaction. One command or a sentence can replace a series of steps and clicks, streamlining in this way the user journey and massively reducing cognitive load.
Personalization
Conversational UX is all about adapting the device to the user’s needs. Its human-like interaction makes it feel more personal.
On top of that, systems that have been designed with conversational UX at their core can remember prior interactions and adjust future responses, creating a sense of personalization that users deeply appreciate.
Improved accessibility
Conversational UX improves accessibility as voice systems can accommodate a wide range of abilities or those relying on screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Main principles of conversational UX
Designing for effective conversational UX flows requires a human-centered approach that makes interactions feel human-like and intuitive. Here are the 10 core principles of conversational UX:
📍Principle 1: Clarity
Clarity is a quintessential element in conversational UX as users must immediately understand how the system responds.
When designing for conversational UX, avoid jargon or technical terms as well as vague phrases that might confuse users.
📌 Example: instead of adding a vague error message like ‘an error occurred while doing this transaction’, you could design the error message in simple language with a clear and actionable next step.
📍Principle 2: Empathy
Empathy is another key characteristic of conversational UX. Empathetic responses go a long way as they can reduce frustration and improve the user experience.
📌 Example: the system should express regret if a command is not possible and offer alternative solutions.
📍Principle 3: Context awareness
Contextual awareness is another core principle of conversational UX. It allows the system to remember previous inputs and avoid repeating the same questions. In this way, the interaction becomes more intuitive and personalized.
📌 Example: if the user says play a song and later specifies at what volume, the system should remember this for future reference. Maintaining this contextual awareness creates more natural conversations.
📍Principle 4: Natural language
Natural language is another key principle of conversational UX, as it ensures that users do not need a specific format or perfect grammar to request something from their devices.
Devices designed with conversational UX should recognize different ways of expressing the same intent.
📌 Example: the system should understand that the command ‘I need tickets to New York’ triggers the same action as the phrase ‘book me a flight to New York’.
📍Principle 5: Error recovery
Error recovery is also an important principle in conversational UX. Advanced systems designed with conversational UX at their core should gracefully recover from errors.
Instead of leaving users stuck, they should offer suggestions or extra clarification.
📌 Example: when the system does not quite grasp what it was told to do, instead of replying with ‘I don’t understand’, it can provide an alternative, such as ‘I didn’t quite get that, did you mean book tickets to New York?’. Providing recovery paths reduces frustration and helps users achieve their goals.
📍Principle 6: Brevity
Brevity is another crucial principle that allows for quick conversations while reducing the user’s cognitive load.
Instead of producing long responses with lengthy instructions, systems designed with conversational UX produce concise messages such as ‘I’ll check that for you’. Short communication ensures clarity and efficiency.
📍Principle 7: Transparency
Transparency is a key principle in conversational UX. Transparency not only builds trust but also sets clear expectations about what a system can and cannot do.
📌 Example: a transparent interaction with a chatbot can look like this: ‘Hello, I am Ava, your virtual assistant. I can help you with accounting and other general questions. If you need to speak to an agent, please type agent.’
📍Principle 8: Adaptability
Systems designed with conversational UX in mind should be adaptable. Adaptability ensures that the system’s tone matches the user’s tone.
📌 Example: a virtual healthcare system should sound more professional than a chatbot that operates as part of an e-commerce shopping site.
📍Principle 9: Accessibility
Accessibility is another key principle of conversational UX. Accessibility ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can interact with the system effectively and efficiently.
Support for screen readers and other assistive technologies, as well as voice input in multiple languages, is essential for an accessible conversational UX flow.
📌 Example: voice commands can be a great alternative for those who cannot type, while supporting multilingual languages can help users communicate in their mother tongue.
📍Principle 10: Security and trust
Last but not least, security is another critical feature of conversational UX. The system should be designed in a way that protects the user’s personal information.
📌 Example: it should never ask for passwords or other information in a reply. Instead, the system should instruct the user to enter their password on a secure page.
💡 Pro Tip
If you want to master the art of user experience, dive into the laws of UX in our UX laws and principles article.
Conversational UX real-world examples
Here are some real-world applications of conversational UX:
Chatbots
Applications like Duolingo use chatbots instead of real customer support agents to help learners practice languages.
These chatbots provide instant help by answering common questions and guiding users through practicing their language of choice.
Chatbots are known to increase engagement as well as reduce response times when compared to other traditional customer support methods.
Voice assistants
Alexa via Amazon and Siri by Apple are great examples of voice assistants that use conversational UX to allow hands-free control of devices. These assistants can help the user complete everyday tasks through simple voice commands.
In-app virtual assistants
A great example of an in-app virtual assistant in the financial sector is Erica, introduced by the band of America, which helps customers pay bills or track spending directly within the app.
The integration of an in-app virtual assistant helps customers get direct support without leaving the application and disrupting their user flow.
Smart speakers
Google Nest and Amazon Echo are great examples of smart speakers that help users control physical elements within their home. Through a command, a user can dim the lights or adjust the room temperature.
Systems like that make conversational UX part of our daily life.
IVR phone systems
Airlines like EasyJet have shifted from button-based menus to conversational IVR. Consumers can simply say what they want, and they will receive immediate answers. Conversational IVR reduces waiting time while improving customer satisfaction.
How to create good conversational UX
Here is how to create an effective conversation UX flow:
✅ Understand user needs
First things first, invest time in understanding your users and the main contexts in which your system will be used.
Research how users speak, their most common questions, and their main frustrations. UXtweak can help you test a chatbot and collect feedback. These insights will help you refine your conversational interface. 🍯
✅ Design for natural conversations
Don’t forget to design for natural conversations by maintaining a clear and concise tone. Use polite language and adjust the tone based on context. Finally, avoid robotic and repetitive scripts.
✅ Map out conversation flows
Do not design only with the happy path in mind. Plan for edge cases and multiple scenarios, such as cases where the user gives incomplete information or changes their minds.
✅ Collect feedback and iterate
Always monitor interaction to identify pain points and refine your scripts based on user feedback. Iteration is key in maintaining a smooth conversational UX flow.
✅ Ensure privacy and accessibility
Last but not least, prioritize privacy and accessibility to protect sensitive information and cater to users with diverse abilities.
Current challenges with conversational UX
Conversation UX is also met with a host of hurdles. Here are the main challenges to look out for:
⚠️ Miscommunication
AI tends to struggle with accents, slang, or speakers that do not give commands in their native language; hence, miscommunication is a common struggle in conversational UX.
⚠️ Over-automation
A poorly designed chatbot can frustrate users as they behave in an overly automated way that does not leave room for error recovery.
⚠️Privacy concerns
Privacy concerns are an ongoing issue when it comes to conversational UX. Careful design and planning are needed to try and mitigate these problems.
⚠️ Evolving user needs
According to a 2021 report by Insider Intelligence, nearly 40% of Internet users prefer interacting with chatbots over virtual agents. Kate Moran states that:
There are a lot of downsides to conversational UX. It’s linear. It requires users to hold a lot of things in their short-term memories, versus seeing them on the page. So we’re starting to see more and more of what are being called hybrid user interfaces.
The future of conversational UX
The future of conversational UX is multimodal and seamless. Hyper-personalization will tailor the tone and offer more recommendations based on individual users and their needs.
UX trends clearly indicate that communication between bots and humans is set to be smoother and more satisfying.
Wrapping up
Conversation UX is and will continue to transform the way humans interact with technology.
From chatbots to virtual assistants, smart speakers, and everything in between, conversational design is set to seamlessly integrate into our daily lives in the form of human-like experiences that meet user needs.
If you want to truly meet your customers’ needs, UXtweak has you covered.
With powerful tools for website and prototype testing, card sorting, session recording, and much more, it’s everything you need to create experiences users love. Start optimizing with UXtweak today for free. 🐝
📌 Example: instead of having to navigate to a browser and then finding the YouTube application, you might simply ask Siri or Alexa to play your favorite song. Conversational UX massively reduces friction.