STEPHEN: Now the first thing is, I would say: role-play the interaction.

And we hear about this a lot, and I say things like "conversational interfaces". But I mean literally, role-play the interface. Like this, right here.

In fact, we're going to do this right now, because this is such a valuable exercise. I'm going to ask Eva to help me here. I'm going to actually show you the kind of insights you can get from this.

So we've actually got a prop. Eva is going to play the form. And I'm going to be the human, trying to get something done. And let me tell you about the situation: this is actually a real one that happened about a month ago. This is the form field, you can actually check this out.

EVA: Where should I stand so you can still see the form? Over here?

STEPHEN: You're fine. You're good.

So I'm trying to reserve a meeting space in Amsterdam. Actually, I'm just trying to get a quote for a meeting space, because I'm going to have a workshop there next month. And so I was looking at different hotel sites, looking at different venues, trying to get an idea for how much it would cost for a one-day workshop, it's for people who live in Amsterdam, I would be the only person travelling there. The basic things you need to know: it's one day; it would be a meeting-style space, so we could rearrange and do workshop activities; and I would need catering for breakfast, lunch and afternoon. So that's the basic information I want to share.

There was no email form to contact a person and just write those two sentences out. And so I had this form. And first of all, I'll save you the pain of getting to this form, they actually had this meeting RFP. RFP stands for Request For Proposal, and usually when I think of proposals, I think of things that people spend hours or days working on. I don't want a proposal, I just want a quick quote, right? It should take this person 5 minutes. So this is the form that it came to.

So my first thing was, I'll start the conversation here.

STEPHEN: A request for proposal? I really don't need a proposal. I don't want to waste your time. 

EVA: Fill out this request for proposal.

STEPHEN: Alright ... can I just shoot you an email or something? Is there an email anywhere?

EVA: Fill out the request for proposal.

STEPHEN:  OK. Alright. Contact person. That's me, right?

EVA: Contact person.

STEPHEN: My name? I guess that's my name. I mean, how often do people actually fill out this for other people? Usually the person ...  OK, anyway.

EVA: Contact person!

STEPHEN: Alright, I'll fill out my name. Enough already. OK, email. That makes sense. I assume you need email to contact me. OK, great. Email. Telephone. Do you really need my telephone?

EVA: Telephone.

STEPHEN: Why do you need my telephone?

EVA: We need to know everything.

STEPHEN: Alright. Telephone. So I'm in the U.S., I'm in the states. So you need to add +1, so you know to call ... are you really going to call me? What can be done via phone that can't be done ... ?

EVA: Telephone!

STEPHEN: Alright, alright. I'm going to anticipate that you need some help, so I'm going to put +1 on your behalf. Company. Pfth! This isn't for a company, this is for me. I have a company name, but, I mean, I'm not doing this for a large organisation. Alright, company name. Oh, event name. Alright. So this is the Seductive Interactions Workshop ... I'm worried you might get the wrong idea if I actually type "Seductive Interactions" in there.

[laughter]

EVA: Event name!

STEPHEN: Argh. I don't know if I should type "Seductive Interactions." I'll just put "design workshop." That should be safe. Why do you even need this? I guess this is just so you can refer to it or something, some label. Why couldn't you call it "your workshop" or "your workshop on such-and-such a day."

EVA: It says, "training, meeting, conference, customer promotion, family event or other."

STEPHEN: Alright. I guess it could be training. Meeting ... I think from other sites I've been to a meeting means, like, 12 people. It's not a conference, it's not like this venue here.

EVA: Just pick one.

STEPHEN: Um ... "other?" OK. I guess it will be a workshop ... "other." OK, so it's going to be a workshop on one day on November 9th. Arrival and departure? It's just for one day.

EVA: Arrival date?

STEPHEN: November 9th.

EVA: Departure date?

STEPHEN: November 9th. And do I have to put the year? 2009? Well it's 2010 right now, can I schedule this in the past? Is that possible?

EVA: Departure date?

STEPHEN: November 9th. But ... oh, wait. You're thinking this is an event where people are going to stay at the hotel. No no, this is for people in Amsterdam. For people who live there already. I'm the only one who's going to be staying, and I might not be staying at your hotel. I just need a quote for the one day.

EVA: Single or double room?

STEPHEN: I don't know if I'm staying at your hotel. I really don't!

OK, so we could go on. But you get the idea of how, just by role-playing, you saw there were bad things in the form, things that could be improved.

I've found by doing this exercise as an evaluative technique is really useful for unearthing those subtle things, those things that really should be fixed. Subtle and some not-so-subtle.

Let's role-play again. And this is what we would do if we were trying to create a form from scratch, or we were going to throw this one out and start over from the beginning. I would actually, literally, role-play this with someone else in the office, and just have a human conversation. And I'd have a third person recording this. Because out of this conversation there are going to be some insights that you can use to actually design a form. A more useable and useful form. So let's do this again, on a more positive side. 

So I'll come in here.

STEPHEN: I want to get an idea of what it would cost to do a room here, for a workshop.

EVA: Well, I'll need to get some contact details from you, and I might have to check with my manager, and then I can back to you. So do you have an email address or phone number that I can reach you on?

STEPHEN: OK. Yeah, let me give you my email, because I know we're international and, yeah ...

EVA: Email is good.

STEPHEN: OK, my email address is such-and-such, there you go. What else do you need to know?

EVA: Well, you could put your name ...

STEPHEN: Oh yeah, name would be good. So here's my name, here's my email address, and let me tell you a little bit about it. It's a one-day event. And really I just need breakfast, lunch, and afternoon catering. 

EVA: Do you know how many people?

STEPHEN: Oh yes, about 30 people. I don't know exactly: it could be as little as 15, it could be as many as 40. But I guess 24-30 would be a good middle range. And you probably have an idea of your room sizes for what could accommodate that. But that's kind of the range I'm thinking of.

EVA: Right. So you need some rooms also, for staying, maybe?

STEPHEN: No, no rooms, in fact. I mean, I might need a room for myself, so if you can throw in a discounted room for me, that would be great, but ...

EVA: I have to check with my manager, but I can find out, of course. 

STEPHEN: OK.

EVA: And what kind of equipment do you need? What kind of ... you need a room, but what kind of room do you need?

STEPHEN: Oh, a room to do a workshop-style training. And I would need the projector as well. A projector and slides, and some audio.

EVA: Some audio.

STEPHEN: So we'll stop there. But you get an idea of some different things.

One insight there, onsights for these events, early on you may be ... Oh, thank you Eva.

[applause]

One thing I would take from there is, instead of asking people to specify the specific date ... like, I had an idea, late October / early November, but I didn't know when. In fact, when I met with people on the phone, I would say, "Hey, I think it's going to be a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, but if there's a certain day of the week when it would be cheaper for me, you tell me, but let me just give you the kind of range for the timeframe I'm thinking about." So right there, you could say, let's put a date range for getting quotes. How much difference does it make on quotes? Could I do that? There are little things you can discover from a conversation like that.