8. Conversational Style: Beyond the Nuts and Bolts of Conversation

This chapter provides UX designers with some of the linguistic resources necessary to build more engaging chatbots and virtual agents. Conversation Analysis teaches us the foundational mechanics of conversation—how participants initiate and terminate an interaction, how they take turns in talk, how they negotiate understanding, etc. Interactional Sociolinguistics and the study of conversational style show us how humans leverage these structures to convey style and accomplish social goals in talk, such as building rapport or showing respect. If Conversation Analysis is the key to designing conversation that flows, Interactional Sociolinguistics and conversational style are the keys to designing conversation that has what some might call personality. Here, linguistic research is applied as a design tool for creating conversational interfaces that have style and strategically align to users’ needs according to the social goal at hand. If designers seek to make a chatbot enthusiastic or considerate, this chapter has the tools needed to design conversations that achieve that with users.