Conversation as Interface - Future of Mobile Design ( WSJ & Dow Jones Mobile Week Presentation)

This is a talk I gave to Dow Jones & WSJ company-wide. It provides an overview of the trend towards messaging interfaces across all sorts of mobile product categories, and tried to recommend design strategies and direction for companies trying to build products in this space.

Transcript

1. Future of Mobile Design - Conversation as Interface 10.26.15
2. MacGuffin Labs M We help companies innovate in the ‘Age of Messaging’ 2015 - 2004 - 2015 Messaging Era Social Network Era SMS
3. Overview 1. Landscape of Messaging Apps 2. Design & Technology Trends in Messaging Apps 3. Thoughts for Media Companies Specifically
6. $21.8 Billion Facebook Acquisition of WhatsApp $900 Million Rakuten Acquisition of Viber
7. Personal Communication 1 - 1 Broadcast Communication 1 - Many Social Networks Messaging Apps VS.
8. Who Do We Talk To?
9. TALK TO FRIENDS & FAMILY
10. Email SMS Basic Protocols Richer Apps Phone Calls TALK TO FRIENDS & FAMILY
11. Dating TALK TO NEW PEOPLE
12. TALK TO NEW PEOPLE Business & Jobs Weave
13. TALK TO COWORKERS
14. In Messaging Apps TALK TO BRANDS
15. TALK TO BRANDS In Brands’ Products Feedback & customer support. More powerful tools for companies to talk to their users
16. TALK TO EXPERTS Text With Doctor
17. Text With Therapist Text With Life Coach Text With Nutritionist TALK TO EXPERTS
18. Talk to Experts - Text With Lawyer
19. her
22. One App to Rule Them All WeChat’s Dominance in China
23. Monthly Active Users Stats & Facts 549 Million + 40 Min + Daily Reading Time Tencent. Mobile First. QQ -> WeChat
24. Chat is Central…. BUT Taxis Food Delivery Book Restaurants Pay Bills Government Services Movie Tickets Send Money to Friends Coupons Shazaam Dating Doctors Appointments News & Media (Moments) E-Commerce … and much more APPS WITHIN THE APP SERVICES & APPS WITHIN APPS
28. WeChat As Distribution Channel +200M Views In Under 3 Days
29. PLATFORM & PLUMBING Attention -> Services
30. WeChat Toys
32. M is a personal digital assistant inside of Messenger that completes tasks and finds information on your behalf. It’s powered by artificial intelligence that’s trained and supervised by people. David Marcus - Facebook VP of Messaging Products
33. “So far, most people are using M to pass off less than thrilling chores, get out of a bind, or just extend their bandwidth when life gets truly busy.”
34. • “Media and communication are converging,” • “Some of what we’re all creating now will be a huge part of these messaging apps over the next one or two years.” - Jonah Peretti
36. Observations 1. Communication is Central to Human Behavior & Organization 2. Computers are getting better at understanding natural language, and responding in natural ways, which allows us to take interact through conversation. 3. Allows for new types of interaction mediums - invisible interfaces, mining data, personalization.
37. A New Type of Search Personal Assistants & Experts you have relationships and conversations with. Ask for things in natural, conversational way. Use conversation to disambiguate what you mean!
41. A New Type of Commerce Credit Card on File.
44. The Rise of Personal Assistants Siri
46. x.ai is a personal assistant who schedules meetings for you Amy
47. On Demand Travel Concierge
50. How Do You Engage?
52. Humans Humans + AI AI
54. Data Mining Conversations Evergreen Content & Patterns
55. Cards: Information & Action
58. Information Action
59. Operator
60. Natural Language into Structured Data
61. Mobile Chat + Fill Out Forms Via Conversation
63. Recognize Entities Person Channel
64. Text to Actions
66. Slash
67. The Return Of The Command Line Interface - Fred Wilson
68. Voice as Interface
69. Conversation is the Interface As technology gets smarter, and more anticipatory of our wants and intent, the interface gets smaller and smaller until it disappears.
70. Design a tone, a persona. What’s it like to chat with WSJ?
71. Thoughts for Media How do you personalize communication & information distribution on these new messenger apps? How do we make stories & information available to the new Personal Assistants & Expert platforms?
72. Thoughts for Media How do we design content for these new platforms that is tailored to these new mediums? What does a story look like in conversation? What does a conversational interface look like for exploring & engaging with media?