It\u2019s often said design is a dialogue between designer and user. We talk to users about what they want and need. We discuss projects with our colleagues to examine problems and uncover solutions.<\/p>\n
Conversation is such a great way of achieving clarity of thought, even if you\u2019re just talking to yourself<\/a>.<\/p>\n But conversation only really begins when a user gets involved. We make things, put them out there, and wait to see how the world responds.<\/p>\n Conversation is growing increasingly relevant to digital product design in a more literal sense. Our interactions with computers have always been fundamentally rooted in input\/output, call and response. But as computers have grown increasingly sophisticated, so too has their ability to communicate in a more human way.<\/p>\n Conversing with a computer has long been a trope of sci-fi, and a goal<\/a> of many researchers. The reality of how this is actually playing out differs slightly from the predictions of the past. But it has arrived. Conversation has become a user interface.<\/p>\n Given so much of our work is based on the back and forth exchange of ideas, it\u2019s not surprising designers are imagining a new generation of messaging products, with dialogue at their center. Conversational UIs are breaking out of messaging apps and into products we use every day.<\/p>\n The cause of this shift is simple: human nature.<\/p>\n We\u2019re innately tuned to converse with others. It\u2019s how we share knowledge, how we organise ourselves, and how we share emotions. Language has been part of our makeup for hundreds of thousands of years. So of course we message all day long in bursts and binges, with family, friends, and colleagues. Messaging has become a layer through which daily lives are conducted.<\/p>\n Think about it: how long did it take this morning before you sent or received a message on your phone? Look at the list of the most popular apps<\/a> in the world: of the top 10, all are social in nature, and 6 are primarily for messaging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Old: all software expands until it includes messaging New: all messaging expands until it includes software<\/p>\n \u2014 Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) March 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nConversation as design material<\/h2>\n