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Forrester View
Model Web dialog on everyday talk
Kerry Bodine |
Web managers can take advantage of conversation as a metaphor
for interaction with computers by designing self-service online
interactions based on it, say Kerry Bodine (Above), Nate
L Root and Caroline L Carney.
Conversation forms the core of human communication. Because
the social rules of conversation are deeply ingrained, people naturally—and
unconsciously —use conversation as a metaphor for their interaction with
computers. Web managers should take advantage of this connection by designing
self-service online interactions that incorporate the style, pace and rules
of real-life conversations.
Make conversation a metaphor for human- computer interaction
Designers apply the metaphor of “conversation” to interactions between
humans and computers.
Dialog boxes are a simple example of this thinking: Aptly named pop-up windows
they ask simple questions like “Are you sure you want to delete this file?”
and require simple, conversational answers like “yes” or “no.”
The conversation metaphor is effective because:
People engage in—and enjoy—conversations.
People have numerous ways of communicating with each other:
hand gestures, body language, and smoke signals are just a few.
But conversations —whether in person, over the phone, or through
e-mail or SMS—are the richest and most prominent form of human-to-human
communication. They’re also the most preferred: Consumers who
need assistance prefer having face-to-face or phone conversations
versus using a Web site.
People understand how conversations work.
The “rules” of conversation are deeply ingrained in human culture
and behaviour. People know that conversations have a beginning, middle, and
an end, that they should take turns speaking, and that it’s rude to ignore
someone who is speaking to you. They also know that some of these rules change
based on the conversation context or medium. For example, two people often speak
at the same time when arguing or when conversing via instant messaging.
People treat computers like humans.
Years of experiments conducted by Stanford sociologists show
that people assign human attributes to software programs and prefer
computers that comply with accepted social conventions.3 For example,
people perceive a computer’s gender, enjoy computers with “personalities”
that are similar to their own, respond to praise from software,
and react more favourably to polite error messages. As designers
Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann note, the “reaction to software
as sentient is both unconscious and unavoidable.”
Web interactions should follow the rules of conversation
To capitalise on your customers’ inherent preference
for conversational interfaces, you don’t need to build a speech interface
rivalling 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL. To make self-service Web interactions
more familiar and comfortable to your users, follow these conversation rules:
Introduce yourself.
When meeting a new acquaintance, most people introduce themselves. More than
simple courtesy, introductions help us understand our relationship to other
people and what value we’ll get from the conversation. On the Web, a company’s
home page provides its introduction, so it should explain what the company does
and expose the value offered on the site.5 For example, ABN AMRO introduces
itself on its home page as “The global banking group for your business
and private financial needs.” Content, functionality, and navigation on
the Honda.com home page introduce the site and give the user confidence that
she can configure an Accord Sedan, request a quote, and locate a nearby dealership.
Don’t repeat yourself.
While it’s important to introduce yourself, introducing yourself two or
three times in a row to the same person will earn you some strange looks. But
Wood Mackenzie, an energy industry consulting firm, does just that on its site.
A short blurb on its home page reads, “Wood Mackenzie has been a respected
adviser to the energy industry for over 30 years. We combine experience with
industry knowledge to provide clients with valuable analysis and unique insights.”
Unfortunately, these exact sentences repeat at the top of second and third level
pages on the site.
Say what you mean.
Misunderstandings are an unavoidable aspect of conversations, but they can be
minimised through carefully chosen words, confirmation and clarification. Clear
language is even more important on the Web, but many sites provide vague or
misleading information. When a user sends a credit card payment through PayPal,
he gets a message that says, “You have sent cash!” After a user submits
the “Online Room Booking” form for the upscale Grace Hotel in Sydney,
Australia, she gets a message that says “Message Sent . . . Thank you.
One of our representatives will be contacting you with more information.”
What’s not clear from the message is that the user didn’t actually
book a room, but merely sent a request to the hotel staff.
Acknowledge what the user said . . .
People don’t like to feel ignored or misunderstood. On the Web, it’s
easy for a site to acknowledge that it has heard and understands the user. When
Travelocity.com crunches on a flight request for 30 seconds, it doesn’t
leave the user hanging: It promptly displays an animated message stating, “We
are searching for your flights.” When a user changes his e-mail and newsletter
preferences on The New York Times’ Web site, a confirmation page clearly
highlights the updated selections, so the user knows that he’s been understood.
and then remember it.
It’s exasperating when one person in a conversation
forgets what the other has said. But Web sites do this all the time. Verizon’s
and AT&T’s sites ask for personal information, such as telephone number
or zip code, before providing details on local DSL availability. But when the
user decides to purchase the service, both sites forget these details on the
order form. At citizensbank.com, links like “Apply online to open a new
Green Checking Account today” appear to be specific to the account type
that the user has selected. But a few steps into the application process, this
initial choice disappears and the user must again select the desired account
type.
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1. In a 2002 research paper
entitled “Making Sense of Sensing Systems,” Victoria Bellotti
and others examine the communicative aspects of interactions and draw
on findings from the field of conversation analysis. Source: Victoria
Bellotti, Maribeth Back, W Keith Edwards, Rebecca E. Grinter, Austin Henderson,
and Cristina Lopes, Making Sense of Sensing Systems: Five Questions for
Designers and Researchers, CHI 2002, April 20-25, 2005 Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Susan Brennan’s The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design discusses
how graphical user interfaces are essentially conversational. Source:
Susan Brennan, The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Addison-Wesley,
1990.
2. In a 2003 survey of 8,000
North American financial services consumers, only 23 percent reported
being satisfied getting customer service on the Web. Face-to-face and
phone service satisfaction rates were much higher: 83 percent and 76 percent,
respectively. See the October 17, 2003, Report “Simplifying Cross-Channel
Design.”
3. Byron Reeves and Clifford
Nass replicated existing sociology and psychology experiments that examined
human-to-human interactions—but they replaced one of the humans with
a computer. Source: Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass, The Media Equation:
How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People
and Places, University of Chicago Press, 2003.
4. In About Face 2.0, Alan
Cooper and Robert Reimann suggest that software should be ‘considerate.’
Among the attributes of ‘considerate software’—it anticipates
needs, doesn’t burden you with its personal problems, is perceptive
and self-confident, doesn’t ask a lot of questions, takes responsibility,
and knows when to bend the rules. Source: Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann,
About Face 2.0, John Wiley & Sons, 2003
5. Successful home pages
are built on a solid understanding of the site’s users and their
goals. For details refer the August 30, 2005, Best Practices “Expose
Value On The Home Page.”
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For more information, contact Forrester
India Country Manager Sudin Apte on sapte@forrester.com
or phone 020 - 25674390/91
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