Form to Flow: Exploring Challenges and Roles of Conversational UX Designers in Real-world, Multi-Channel Service Environments

Conversational agents are widely used in today’s multi-channel service environments. However, little is known about the challenges faced by user experience (UX) designers. This study explores the challenges faced by conversational UX designers while working in multidisciplinary teams to understand the design process involved in the transforming of conventional graphical interfaces to conversation flows. In-depth interviews with UX designers working in industries revealed the key challenges in the form-to-flow transformation process. Further, collaborative work with various stakeholders in complex work environments involve conversational artificial intelligence engendered gap-filling work phenomena where UX designers tend to work across role boundaries. Our results indicated the need for new design tools and aids for collaboration for designing conversational agents in multi-channel service environments.