Big Sister

 

Timeline

March 2022 - Jan 2022

Tools

Figma, Photoshop

Project Type

Team project - Media Technology Module

MY ROLE

Problem research, Chatbot script writing, Testing

 

Review

As part of my Media Technology class, we were given a team assignment for a specific product design challenge. Our product had to be related to the healthcare sector and we decided to make ‘Sex education and Birth Control’ the main focus of our design. In this project, I took the lead on writing and user testing a chatbot script to help teenagers in dealing with this important topic. Aside from this, I was also responsible for researching the social-economic impact of sex education and some current state-of-the-art examples of voice control interfaces.

Problem discovery

“As a teenager that does not have a strong relationship with my parents, I need other sources of information regarding birth control, because I struggle to talk to adults about this, but I do want to protect myself.”

According to the Rutgers institute - the main knowledge centre about sexual health in the Netherlands - a large number of Dutch adolescents lack important knowledge about contraceptives. The main cause of this situation seems to be that the topic is too awkward for teenagers to discuss with their parents, or sometimes even taboo when it comes to Dutch adolescents of an immigrant background.

 

Goal

With BigSister, we aim to eradicate the awkwardness of ‘the sex conversation’ and create a safe space for Dutch teenagers, especially Dutch adolescents of an immigrant background, by removing human-to-human conversation. Teenagers have already stated that the internet is their preferred source of sex education, and with BigSister, the internet gets a new coat.

Solution

BigSister is a mobile app that provides Dutch adolescents with a safe space to ask all their questions about contraceptives and sexual health without being judged. The BigSister app allows teenagers to chat with an Artificial Intelligence bot that has a database full of knowledgeable, up-to-date answers to all of their questions.

 

Research method

For this project, a qualitative research method with six participants was selected based on the Think-aloud interview technique:

  1. Think-aloud technique. Observe how participants interact with both prototypes (Behaviour)

Evaluating tasks:

Task 1: BigSister & Voice control interface

Task 2: Birth control options at AI chatbot function

2. Interview participants after interact with both prototypes (Opinion)

Interview questions were formed around the design, function of the app and requirement to download the app. In order to answer the main question:

How effective is Big Sister in assisting young multicultural teenagers regarding sex education and birth control in comparison to other resources and parents?

 

insightS

The major new insights found as a result of the user interviews were:

  • The colour of the app should be neutral

A small amount of participants disliked the colour of the app because it was too feminine. But all participants responded very well to the navigation through the app and rated it highly.

  • Add an option to show more information

A small minority of participants indicated that the answers were too short and brief. As such, it would be better to add an ‘extra information’ option for those users who are interested in further reading.

  • BigSister was not always preferred as a source to gain sex knowledge

Test results showed that BigSister was only preferred in answering light-hearted questions. When it concerned heavier, more in-depth sex-related questions, users still preferred other sources such as parents or doctors.

 

key feature

1.Straight forward home page to ask your question

It’s vital to minimize users’ cognitive load and decision-making time, hence the home page was designed to be straight forward for users to ask and find the answer to their questions.

2. Chatbot page

The look and feel of the chat page is designed to look like the current popular messaging apps that GenZ is most familiar and comfortable with.

3. Voice Controlled page

Similar to the chatbot function, users can also tap the microphone and ask questions via voice message.

 

Chat Script

 

Chat tree diagram

Chatbot prototype

 
 

Final product

 

Reflections

  • When designing the chatbot script, I mostly focused on females’ contraceptive choices. As a result, male users could not really interact or test the app during the user evaluation task. I will take this as a learning lesson that in the future I must include all users needs into the design.

  • It was interesting to find out users reacted positively to Big Sister app as it created a safe space to avoid awkward human to human conversation. However, they still did not consider Big Sister a reliable enough source to ask deeper and more meaningful sex-related questions. Why this is and how this can be solved could be the topic of future research around the app.

  • Because this project mainly focused on problem research, our team decided to create an MVP for product testing. In the next development step, we should take into users’ feedback into design consideration to deliver a better completed app.