#17 Happy Diwali: CxD community voices, mentors, and tea
దీపావళి శుభాకాంక్షలు, தீபாவளி வாழ்த்துக்கள், दीपावली की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं!
Filling your life with light 🪔
May the lights of this holiday bring wealth, light, and happiness into your home. Sincerely from the Voice This! team to you, happy deepavali!
This is a special issue. Alright, you caught us, every issue is a special issue (I mean, have you seen our hand-picked resources?), but in our last issue, we wanted to hear from our readers. We asked for ideas on how to keep conversation designer rising stars inspired and growing, and you responded! We’ve picked out a few of the replies and shared them here. Enjoy :)
Thank you for wanting to make CxD better, 1 day at a time 💜💙💜
How can we continue to develop CxD design talent?
“We should focus on structured learning, hands-on projects, community engagement, continuous improvement, utilizing design tools, and fostering cross-disciplinary skills.”
“Share that it's more than developing chatbots, it's about having a conversation with technology.”
“General networking opportunities - there used to be just a few of us designers, now there are so many! It would be nice to have a hub to connect.”
“Offer affordable training and mentorship programs, making useful resources available, hosting online events, and creating content that tackles their biggest challenges.”
“Conversation design is never dying, it’s just adapting to the technical evolution that is happening. We, as a community, need to learn from each other to make it all the better.”
CxD mentors and where to find them 🔮
Wouldn’t it be amazing if all of our CxD mentors could be found in one place? Our dream is becoming reality, thanks to you!This issue’s mentorship section was written in collaboration with elaineinthebay, to promote her latest publication on the topic— “How to Find and Become a Conversation Design Mentor”. This is a two-way guide, for both mentees and beginner mentors. A special thanks to Lorraine Burrell for the timely questions and inspiration!
If you’re available as a mentor, we’d love to showcase you in our next issue! Please tell via email or our Google Form.
CxD mentors
On LinkedIn:
On Bot Jobs:
On ADPList:
Shraddha Singh (on Hiatus)
A Nam Nguyen (on Hiatus)
Olivera Bay (on Hiatus)
Leonardo Noriega (on Hiatus)
Elaine Anzaldo (on Hiatus)
CxD career coaches
CxD community hubs
Maaike’s Convoclub
Hillary’s Conversation Designers Internet Club
Emily & Giulia’s Convers(AI)tions Working Sessions
Elaine’s CxD Group Chat
(Instagram account required, DM for invite)
Beers & Bots 🍺➕🤖
🍵 What do titles even mean? 🍵
OpenAI has added one more job title to the mix: “Model Designer”.
What is a model designer? OpenAI defines it as a designer who “shapes how our models interact with people. We view the model as the product itself, aiming for intuitive experiences that exceed user expectations and feel like magic.”
Is this the mainstream way of describing conversation design? Or maybe we’ve had it wrong all along: conversation is one of the mediums for HCI, but not its actual product. Future AI models might be able to rely on inputs that exceed the bounds of conventional back and forth conversation. So why cling to conversation design?
Perhaps the biggest asset conversation design has given us is a shared identity, and, by extension, a strong sense of community. Maybe “CxD” was always meant to be an external name we give ourselves, and not the one HR gives us. Food for thought: if the CxD community rebranded to “model” or “AI” design, what would our acronym be?
P.S. We found it extremely interesting that the newest “Model Design” hire at OpenAI was formerly one of the leading UX Writers at Figma 👀
Thanks for Reading This!
Voice This! Newsletter is a collective effort by Millani Jayasingkam, Kritika Yadav, and Elaine Anzaldo. Opinions expressed are solely our own and do not express the views or opinions of our employers.
Thanks for the mention :) Keep up your good work! Happy Diwali
Thanks for the Bot Jobs mention 😍