Conversation Design Best Practices

Sofie Meyer Updated by Sofie Meyer

Conversation design best practices

Design an effective chat service by using best practices from conversation design.

⏮️ Before onboarding

  1. Is the value proposition of your service clear to the user?
  2. Are any costs or incentives clearly communicated?
  3. Is the chatbot’s primary purpose clearly defined?

🌍 Language

  1. Does the chatbot use a language that is appropriate for your target user?
  2. What communication style should your

🗯 Tone of voice

  1. How does your chatbot use language? (gentle, professional, funny?)
  2. Is the tone of voice consistent throughout?
  3. Does your chatbot use emojis? 🚀🌟💡🎈
  4. How might the tone of voice shift with different topics?

😊 Persona

  1. Does your chatbot need a persona?
  2. If yes, have you defined it clearly? (see this playbook):
    1. Target audience (demographics)
    2. Type of support (instructions, reminders, safe space?)
    3. Role (guide, assistant, peer, expert?)
    4. Personality (e.g. fun, serious, compassionate, silly)
    5. Values (action, compassion, clarity?)
    6. No-gos (jargon, formality?)
    7. Ideal emotional impact (reassured, informed, cared for?)
    8. Is there a real-world or fictional character that resembles your bot?
    9. Gender, backstory, name, age (if needed)
    10. Avatar (if needed)
  3. Have you validated that the persona is relatable and trustworthy for your users?

👋 Onboarding

  1. Have you clearly explained what your bot offers/can and can’t do?
  2. Does your bot explain your data privacy policy (how long it’s stored for, how it’s used)?
  3. Do you gather informed consent to send WhatsApp messages to the user?
  4. Do you inform the user about how to change their notification preferences?
  5. Does your bot offer something of value, quickly?

👍 Interactions

  1. Is your chatbot concise? (ideally no more than 3 sentences per message)
  2. Does each step in the journey have a choice or action for the user to do?
  3. Is the content format varied? (e.g. videos, Q&A, infographics, audio, images, quizzes)
  4. Can users stop the conversation if they want to?
  5. Do you create natural pause points to allow for the user not to become overwhelmed?
  6. Is navigation of the bot easy and intuitive for users?

🚪 Exits and errors

  1. What happens if a user types something the bot doesn’t understand?
  2. If a user gets stuck, how can they get unstuck and return to start, main menu or exit?
  3. When the user has completed a journey, do they receive an exit message?
  4. After a journey is complete, does the bot specify how the user can re-engage?

🆘 Feedback and help

  1. Does your bot offer chances to share feedback?
  2. Does your bot offer users to connect to a human operator instead?
  3. Does your bot offer an alternative channel if the experience becomes frustrating?

🧪 Testing

  1. Have you gone through the whole flow and read it aloud?
  2. Have you role-played your chatbot with another person?
  3. Have you gotten feedback from at least 20 members of your target audience?

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