Community Engagement Award Winner 2023-2024 / UX / Social Innovation | Sep 2023 - Present
One Tap Away
One Tap Away is an ongoing social innovation project, initiated by Team Tech Along, a team of undergraduate students formed by myself with a passion for giving technology solution for gender-based violence related social services. As part of Student-Community Engagement Competition 2023-2024, it is a practical, feasible project that is consisted of two parts within the partnership with a local non-profit organization, VLMFSS (Vancouver Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services); the first part is the implementation of a chatbot and the 2nd part is the establishment of the Advisory Committee to receive feedback about the design of the chatbot.
Team Tech Along
Jae Eun
Ella
Kate
Role as Team Captain
User Study
Primary/Secondary Research
Digital Prototype
Partnership Management
Tool
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Manychat
Student-Community Engagement Competition 23-24
RESUME
In recognition of the chatbot’s potential benefit in completing administrative tasks, I then developed a prototype for SFU Counselling Services.
@ Jae Eun Kim 2024
jaeeunk@sfu.ca
778 866 8123
The idea of One Tap Away came about as I was doing a research as part of Fall 2023 SFU Directed Studies. The research is titled “Digital Interactive Agents for SFU Counselling Services”. In response to the increasing need for accessible mental health resources, particularly among Generation Z individuals, the research investigates how digital interactive agents (i.e., chatbots, voice agents, and conversational avatars) can facilitate the access and use of counselling services, with a specific focus on improving the student experience of the existing Simon Fraser University (SFU) Health & Counselling website.
The research question, relevant to One Tap Away project was:
In what way the digital interactive agents can be helpful in completing the tasks in accessing SFU Counselling Services, including: receiving mental health counselling, scheduling an appointment, and obtaining self-help resources and information on counselling services?
An online user study was created on Survey Monkey to ask students’ perception on the importance of characteristics of digital interactive agents in the context of SFU Counselling Services. 61 SFU students replied to online surveys and 2 participated in interviews.
Findings revealed that the undergraduate students prefer face-to-face, human-to-human counselling sessions as service provision method. They recognized of the potential benefits of digital interactive agents for difficult administrative tasks, such as booking an appointment and accessing to relevant information. However, concerns exist regarding their inability to provide emotional support and addressing emotional distress.
Current Stage
User Study
Design Reframed
Reflection & Future Plans
As of now, we have finished prototyping on Manychat, an online chatbot builder that can be integrated to Facebook and Instagram messaging channels. While prototyping, I focused on lessening emotional and cognitive burden of potential users who may be experiencing gender-based violence.
This rationale can be found in the input method, where the user is given several options to choose from, rather than asked to type their responses.
Current Stage
User Study
Design Reframed
Reflection & Future Plans
This prompted me to reach out to the Director of VLMFSS for the possibility of having digital agents, specifically a chatbot, as their alternative resource provision methods for young post-secondary students in Metro Vancouver.
In discussion with the Director of VLMFSS, we brainstormed about the how we can better ground the concept of building a chatbot in the context of gender-based violence service providers. The Director suggested the idea of establishing the Advisory Committee, comprised of the service providers and other relevant stakeholders of the chatbot to collaboratively revise the design of the chatbot.
That is, we addressed the possibility of having a collaborative design workshop to gain ethnographic insights from the stakeholders and re-frame our chatbot design and content accordingly.
SFU Student-Community Engagement Award is designed to fund and encourage collaborative projects between SFU students and community partners. We have proposed and presented our idea to the Award Committee and were announced to be a winner of $2000 Community Engagement Award to realize the One Tap Away chatbot!
Screenshot of our presentation preparation session
External Outreach
Idea Refinement & Integration of the Advisory Committee
SFU Student-Community Engagement Award
The construction of One Tap Away started from:
How can I transfer my knowledge from my research, regarding digital interactive agents for young undergraduate students, to the context of gender-based violence?
Current Stage
User Study
Design Reframed
Reflection & Future Plans
I wondered how my findings can be applied in the real-life scenario, particularly for crisis intervention services, where my background can play a role. The ideation of forming a team for such a technology intervention began when I was working at VLMFSS as a Victim Support Worker. My job was to primarily assist the victims of crimes, and I noticed that young people in their early 20s are generally hesitant or uncomfortable to seek help through traditional mode of contact, such as a phone call or an email.
VLMFSS
Current Stage
User Study
Design Reframed
Reflection & Future Plans
This is just the beginning of Team Tech Along! With the input from the Advisory Committee and regularly scheduled collaborative design workshops with them, One Tap Away chatbot will continuously evolve to provide an alternative resource provision method specifically for young undergraduate students.
Throughout the project, I have channeled my knowledge and skills into an area of my passion. During the Directed Studies, largely comprised of both online surveys and in-person interviews, provided insights into Gen Z individuals’ preferences with human-to-human services when it comes down to sensitive subjects. This was surprising for me, as my assumption was that they would value and appreciate the digital platform to receive services, more than in-person ones. I reflected back on what the values of “agency” the digital interactive agents have in this generation and time; based on my research, the values were found at its technical aspects that enable administrative tasks, rather than its ability to emulate human properties, such as embodiment or personality.
Thus, when I transitioned my focus to a project centering on gender-based violence, I was mindful of the potential impact of the service it could provide, on behalf of human users. This is why, currently, the chatbot mainly concentrates on conducting searches for resources independently, using pre-defined prompts. I am eager to collect ethnographic data from collaborative design workshops with the Advisory Committee, later this summer, and ascertain if my understanding of assigning 'agency' to the chatbot matches the stakeholders’ perspective.