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JEDI Toolkit
For CUI Designers
Role :
Research and Conceptualization
Timeline :
3 Days
Team size :
3 Members
Deliverables :
Concepts, Toolkit
Opportunity
Aligning with the current HCI research space which advocates and studies designing for DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) perspectives, in this design project, engage in the broad question: How can we make conversational UIs by, for, and about DEIJ?
Background
Conversational UIs are the recent buzz; tech-wise, design-wise, and interaction-wise. We all are a part of constellation of technological artifacts that can just be interacted with without physical touch, gestures, or movement, i.e. we can talk to them. "Conversational UI takes human language and converts it to computer language, and vice versa, allowing humans and computers to understand each other”
(Helpshift,n.d.).
Storyboard
Design Process
Process Overview
Our planning and execution was carried out by following The PRICPS Design Framework (The PRInCiPleS Framework) for Design Plans & Explanations.

P

Predispositions

R

Research

I

Insights

C

Concepts

P

Prototypes

S

Strategies

Product Overview
Toolkit flowThe toolkit consists of 4 phases containing worksheets and cards to help the team to establish the problem space in the scope, user group and relation of JEDI with the CUI in order to know the problem and goals of the project effectively.
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W1: Establish the Design Space (supported by User cards, Use case cards and considerations cards)
W2: Understanding Interactions
W3: Determining Persona Spectrum and Persona Network
W4: Experts Interview
W1 - Establish the Design Space
Why?
REFLECT & VISUALISE  as a team to establish the problem space in the scope, user group and relation of JEDI with the CUI in order to know the problem and goals of the project effectively.

When?
We recommend using this activity as early as possible. This will allow the team to have a clear idea about the problem and then include JEDI thinking from the beginning of the project.

Suggested time: 10 minutes
Materials: Markers / sticky notes
Users: [Designer picks one card]
Contains a set of users who are commonly excluded as a consideration during designing any product.
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Use Cases: [Designer picks one card]Possible use cases in the context of using conversational interfaces in day to day life.
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Considerations: [ Designer can pick multiple cards]What are the considerations that the designer has to think of in the context of the above user and use case scenario. There can be multiple set of considerations that can account for a given user under a given use case scenario.

The Designer using this answers the fields 7, 8, 9 questions in the worksheet thus finally arriving to establishing the design space at the end of teh worksheet
W2 - Understanding Interactions
Here the designers are expected to conduct a roleplay activity to acquire a better understanding of the excluded user group from the previous worksheet activity.
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WHY?
Understand and discuss as a team some common interactions that is intended with the bot and relate it with the common human interaction.   challenges & Friction between the two roleplays to identify opportunities and improvements.

When?We recommend this activity after you have completed the   phase and have thought of some common interacions for the CUI. If you haven’t, think of few common interactions for 5 minutes. before this activity

Suggested time: 30 minutes
Materials: Marking materials
W3 - Persona Spectrum and Persona Network
The Designer is walked through the basics of Persona Spectrum and Persona Network in the Orient part of the toolkit.
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Why?DETERMINE as a team, a user group and their connected Persona Spectrum & Persona Network.  Teams can use the User Card Decks for brainstorming the excluded User group

When?Recommend this activity to the the excluded user group and their connected persona network that will be the intended user of CUI. This Activity will help team during the Expert Interview phase when you empathize with these excluded user groups.
W4 - Experts Interview
This phase is to provide support to the designers in aiding them with possible questions to ask and take down during the user interviews.
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Why?Now that you have your User Persona & User Spectrum, Per form   Inter views to get a better understanding about their needs and pinpoints. The instruction in the worksheet will help your team to initiate the complete process.
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Getting insights from the Excluded user in the beginning phase of the CUI design can help designers to think from the JEDI Perspective. As Microsoft mentions Design for Exclusions and you design for all.
Predispositions

Way of Conversation

Unclear and non-directed dialogs overwhelm the user. Users find it frustrating when a conversation ends abruptly

Personalization and Adaptability

CUIs fail to be versatile and adaptable as they do not account for variations in personal characteristics and emotional state // methods [coutry , region, class].

Bias

Biases of all kinds- cultural,social, racial,etc., exist in the datasets used to train the CUI’s as they are designed to work best for the majorities.

Context

CUIs are not designed considering the context of the user. Like here in the example the wheelchaired person is asking for restaurant recommendation and the CUI fails to provide with teh restaurants taht have wheelchaior access.
Should do
Be oriented about the JEDI aspects while designing Conversational User Interfaces right from the beginning rather than considering the them after facing repurcussions
Can do
Being able to understand the kind of interactions and challenges the excluded user group faces in using the CUI.
Can know
Being informed about the excluded user groups and possible contexts in every user and use case scenario
Forms
Toolkit that is available in physical and digital forms to an individual or a team for easy collaboration and analysis.
Primary Research & Insights
Experience
Mapping
We interviewed a group of designers and tried to map out their emotional journey to synthesize research observations and reveal deeper insights about t he problems faced by designers when designing CUIs for DEIJ
Takeaways
Here‘s a visual map of all the pain points we faced during every step of the design process. The main pattern we noticed was the information overload regarding DEIJ, Use cases and the resulting problems of not implementing these principles. On the other hand there was little to no information on methods to use when designing for DEIJ

Process

Research

Understanding DEIJ

How to Narrow down

Too Many Problems

Too much data online

Understanding the interlinking between aspects of DEIJ

in DEIJ everything is interconnected

HELP! How do I go ahead?

Validating Assumptions

Not enough research data available on the interactions

What methods to use while designing framework/principles

Deciding that this is what the user needs

Clueless about what can be the End product

Process that help us to narrow down our questions

No Methods available to design for CUI

We observed a pattern where most users faced difficulties during the research and narrowing down stages of the Design process. From our interviews and experience mapping we understood that there is a clear need for a method or a process that can guide designers in designing conversational interfaces in the aspects of JEDI. Some of the support that we observed the designers needed are:

1. To Orient: Designers did not know the tangible forms of JEDI because the information available was vast and it is was challenging to narrow down to a particular user group or use case.
2. To Translate: Almost all the designers could not envision how CUI feels like in terms of JEDI
3. To Attack: Designers did not know how to approach the problem space.
Design
Frame
Create supports for designers [Broad scope] :To UNDERSTAND the meaning and interactions of JEDI in the context of CUI, ESTABLISH the Design space, and DETERMINE relevant/ related user groups [Iterated and Defined scope].
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Concepts
Concept 1
The tool aims to aid the understanding of DEIJ, focussed user groups, links between DEIJ principles and context. Team uses a deck of cards which facilitates in collating the key aspects to be considered while designing CUI’s around the DEIJ
Concept 2
Designers use worksheets that will help them map out connections between concerns and define the values & problems to prioritize
Concept 3
As part of this activity, we help the designer arrive at principles for his user group in the aspects of DEIJ in designing a CUI by answering a set of predefined questions via cue cards
Concept 4
An activity based of worksheets and a set of reflective card decks to arrive at the intended solution. Individual worksheets for different phases of the Design Process
1. Orient Toolkit - Informational cards
2. Establish Design space - Worksheet supported by user cards, use cases, considerations
3. Understanding User Interactions - Informational and activity based Worksheet
4. Determining relevant/ related user groups - Informational and activity based Worksheet
5. Expert Interviews - Reflective questions in the form of worksheet
6. Evaluate (future scope) - Set of reflective cue cards
Strategy - Dissemination
We conducted usability testing for the worksheets and understood that designers felt the need to digitalize this toolkit as most of them were separated working from home due to COVID 19.Digitalizing also helped in spreading the reach of the toolkit to various teams and collaborate to pitch in ideas.
Physical
Toolkit
Intend to have a website for JEDI Toolkit for CUI where designers can downlead the Worksheets as a PDF form and print it on a A3 paper.
Digital
Toolkit
FigJam and Miro have been the main medium of collaboration for designers during this digital era. We considered using FigJam as one medium due to the current limitations of team size in Miro.

Check out some other projects while you're at it:

Ease of Technology adoption for the Digital Immigrants

JEDI Toolkit for CUI Designers

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DesIGNED By Bhanu Prathap on WEBFLOW
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