H2H vs. M2H Conversational Modeling: Part 1— Some Rules and Guidelines

This post is Part 1 of a multi-part series of posts on the topic: When designing a voice first conversational experience, should the designer strive to emulate the human-to-human (H2H) model or should they adopt a different model, a machine to human one (M2H), in their quest to deliver a highly usable user interface.

In this post, I attempt to identify and articulate some rules and guidelines for designing a highly usable voice user experience based on the M2H design philosophy.

Part 2 of the series illustrates an attempt at applying the rules and guidelines below in a voice first conversational design example.

Part 3 provides a running dialog from the many contributors who have pitched in with their thoughts, suggestions, criticism, and observations.

All of the above articles mentioned, and this article here, are a work in progress. So feel free to provide your feedback either directly in this document or by emailing me at ahmed.bouzid@gmail.com.

In a recent Linkedin thread, I kicked off a conversation with the following salvo:

Having arrived at the near conclusion that, at least with present day technology and our current knowledge and understanding of the physics of conversation interactions, it…