DESIGNING AN ETHICAL AI CHATBOT FOR HUMAN SERVICES
User research-based design recommendations prepared for stakeholders.
My goal was to understand the needs of clients and staff at PA 211, a nonprofit information and referral service for vulnerable Pennsylvanians. From January to August of 2024, I used a double diamond process to design an intervention to improve service experience. This capstone project, entitled, Ethical Service Design in a Nonprofit Human Services Setting, was part of a Master’s program in Human-Centered Interaction Design.
Background
Discovery
My research design included a literature review, feminist ethical analysis of multichannel services, staff observation, and over 200 client surveys. IRB approval was received after I made modifications to the research plan.
Problem Identification
Thematic analysis and triangulation of data sources revealed that there were resource and service gaps for clients. Both staff and clients experienced technological challenges locating resources, with 38% of clients having difficulty navigating the website.
I used personas, an empathy map, points of view, and “how might we” questions to address user pain points through a series of design recommendations. These related to easier-to-use website features, services for high-risk and first-time clients, and automated service enhancements.
Design Recommendations
Interaction with custom GPT demo built to help clients find human service resources.
PA 211 opted to pursue an AI resource navigation tool for their public website, so I created a mid-fidelity custom GPT chatbot prototype, personality design architecture, and a set of AI ethical guidelines specific to this context. All of these design artifacts incorporated one round of iteration with PA 211 stakeholders.
Prototyping
Although PA 211 decided not to deploy a generative AI navigation assistance tool in the short-term, they will implement some of my other website design recommendations and consider AI for the future. I will submit a report of this research to an industry journal in late 2024.