Small Talk exists to empower people to become happier and more confident versions of themselves by improving their small talk skills.
Small talk is “Polite conversation about unimportant or uncontroversial matters, especially as engaged in on social occasions,” defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. In short, small talk is light, informal conversation. It's commonly used when you're talking to someone you don't know very well and at networking and social events.
Small talk can seem like the default type of conversation in a huge variety of social situations. Whether you are at the store, at work, or anywhere else with people you don’t know well, you are likely to be expected to make small talk.
Research shows that small talk is no small thing.
Small talk is an informal type of communication that serves as the best source of conversation between people who don't know each other well. The actual topics covered during small talk are generally not important, like the weather or sports; its purpose is not to convey information, but rather to serve as an opening act to warm up the audience for the meaty stuff to follow.
In short, being adept with small talk is an important component of your arsenal of social skills. It is mainly meant to serve the purpose of social bonding.
But, although you talk about unimportant things, small talk is very important. Turns out, 91% think small talk might turn into real conversation. It is a fundamental skill that will help you establish relationships with friends or colleagues, and build trust with people around you.
Researchers at the University of Michigan found that social interaction such as a ‘get-to-know-you’ conversation can help you focus, plan, prioritize, and organize.
According to a study by Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder, interacting with strangers results in a more positive experience than solitude.
University of British Columbia researchers found that daily interactions with casual acquaintances like your local barista contributes to feelings of “belongings and happiness.”
Some people hate small talk because they perceive it as a waste of time and as an impediment to a meaningful conversation; others may hate it simply because they are not good at it.
For many people, especially those with social anxiety, being in a situation where small talk is expected can be deeply stressful. There might be all kinds of thoughts going through your mind including, “Everyone will think I’m boring” “What if I make a fool of myself?” “What if I make a mistake?”
2 in 3 Americans think small talk is awkward. When we asked respondents if they would rather make small talk or simply sit in silence, 7 in 10 opted for peace and quiet.
As more social and professional lives are mediated by screens and chat apps, people may find it harder to start a friendly, low-stakes conversation with new people. Even the pandemic and remote work have changed how we connect, or disconnect, with each other, which may affect the young adults who report a lot of social anxiety.
2 in 3 people have used their phones to avoid making small talk. Younger generations are especially prone to using this evasive tactic: Compared to Baby Boomers (30%), Gen Z (89%) are much more likely to check their phones instead of striking up a conversation about work or weather.
Older Americans tend to be more interested in learning about other people when they make small talk than younger folks are. Nearly a quarter (23%) of Boomers said they make small talk to get to know someone, versus just 7% of Gen Z.
Silence for about 6 minutes...
it’s the degree of engagement in the college classroom
of survey responders make small talk daily to several times a week
of survey responders think they are not good at small talk
- Simply not good at small talk and lack of confidence
- Don’t have any interesting topics to start the conversation
- Frustrated with certain situations or context
Enhance the quality of conversation by offering various topics
Provide customized topics based on the different contexts
Promote a more confident version of themselves
Encourage and support users by providing feedback to get more confident with their answer
Facilitate social connections
Contribute to users’ social bonding by offering on-the-way quick questions to warm up before meeting someone that will foster a positive and less stressful connection with friends/colleagues
Small Talk is for
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Location: San Francisco
Education: Art history
- Practice to have a more natural opening line with small talk
- Get familiar with talking in different contexts
- Have more confidence in having small talk
- Don’t want to look like a weirdo in a certain situation
- Silence makes her feel embarrassed
- Oftentimes, she freezes up while small talk
Kelly wants to practice her small talk and get familiar with it.
Kelly wants to receive feedback on her small talk, evaluate herself, and become more comfortable with it.
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Location: Portland
Education: Marketing
- Discover casual/interesting topics other than weather or weekend plan
- Want to have a more non-awkward conversation with his customer
- Having small talk is okay, but sometimes there are not enough interesting topics to start
- Frustrated with reacting to other’s talk
Geoff wants to discover casual but engaging topics.
Practice small talk by selecting a customized topic
Key conclusions
- Home page: Not sure if I want to see my progress first or just start the practice
- Practice page: feels not categorized or sorted in the proper naming. The first and the other two feel disjointed
- “Select a person to talk to” confused. Am I picking up a character, a person, or an actual person I know?
- Any option I can edit the prompt? Not just tap for a new prompt
Receive feedback and evaluate himself
Key conclusions
- When the conversation starts, do I ask the person on the screen a question? Or will the person ask me the question? It could be important to let the user know who’s leading the conversation.
- Feedback: sometimes, eye contact doesn’t always happen in natural conversation
- Maybe providing feedback about tone would be beneficial, too. Shows the progress of tone changes
- During the conversation, I want to know if it’s recording or not
Discover casual but engaging topics
Key conclusions
- Wording problem: “Pick a character.” The tester felt she was going to pick a character as a person whom she’s going to talk to
- Maybe try “Spot a uniqueness”
- It feels a bit like a one-time practice. Would want to learn more about what could happen after the practice
- Add a ‘Recently practiced’ section to enhance the experience by letting users know their last action within the app
- Add personalized touch: handwritten name on top of the page
- Reorganized the category and naming
- Adjust the icon usage
- Add another category as ‘Start a quick prompt’ which will allow users to start the random prompt in a second
- Add shadow to keep consistency with other buttons
Update the naming of the title to lessen the confusion and to be more like a conversational
- Select a person to talk to > How do you want to practice
- Record? > Do you want to record?
Update the loading page with the user’s progress to engage them more with the app while waiting for the summary result
To reduce the confusion, before starting, I added an information pop-up to let users know who is leading the conversation
Update the summary/script section with the feedback by highlighting good, ok, or needs to improve areas
Add a description to give a glimpse of this activityMove the ‘warning message’ near Next button to make it more visible and clear
Enhance graphics to resemble more of a real-life environment
