I created Conversation Design Basics as a foundational section for people who want a clearer understanding of what Conversation Design actually is and how the field is evolving.

A lot of the current conversation around AI starts in the middle. It starts with tools, prompts, LLMs, or agents. But many of the questions people are asking now have older roots in conversation design, voice interfaces, IVR, and interaction design.

That is part of what this section is for.

Here, I want to make the discipline more legible: what it covers, what makes it useful, and why it still matters as systems become more generative, agentic, and behavior-driven.

This section sits within the broader editorial direction of this publication, which also explores Agentic UX, system behavior, evaluation, trust, and the changing role of language professionals in AI. But this is the part devoted to the foundations.

If the field is moving forward, I think it also helps to understand what it is built on.

You can read the pieces in order, or start with the ones that feel most relevant to your work.

Start with:

• Conversation Design: What It Really Is — and Why Its History Does Not Begin with Alexa

From there, the section moves through use cases, scope, voice and tone, natural interaction, flows, repair, prompting, testing, and the role of the conversation designer in real systems.