Guidelines and Heuristics

This chapter explains what makes an excellent conversational style. Some of what is covered may seem obvious, but exploring and understanding why something works or doesn’t work is valuable when applying the concepts

to new situations. ChatGPT is unique because it won’t necessarily answer the same question again in the same way, which is why Chapter 7, Prompt Engineering, was essential. This chapter will cover guidelines and heuristics to evaluate and improve the experience you are designing. We are not picky about what we call these, but we can use better definitions. Guidelines are particular and tend to be based on user research. Standards are more specific, while best practices are recommendations based on certain conditions. Vendors such as Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) or Google’s Material Design are widely copied and include all of these protocols. Organizations or governments can mandate guidelines and standards...