Visit Whaley to click through the prototype using Messenger.com
Meet Whaley, the Chatbot on a mission to ease the experience of users hunting for jobs in DC Government.
Context - Design a robust working chatbot (Conversational User Interface) to solve for one pain point discovered during Service Re-Design for the City of the District of Columbia
Constraints - 3 day turnaround
Role- Sole UX Designer
Methods- Research, User Persona, Rapid Iteration
Deliverable- Sketches, Conversational Navigation, Mid- Fidelity Clickable Prototype
Introduction: Objectives, Research and Synthesis
Employees within the Health and Human Services Agency cluster had described pain points during recruitment, hiring, on-boarding and promotion.
Pain Points
Research of the application portal experience (Careers.Dc.Gov) and Reddit discussion threads further revealed applicant frustration and dissatisfaction. Applicants described uncertainty and confusion about where they were in the process.
Sketching the Use Case when Maria is at her wit’s end not hearing back about her job application.
User Personas
Maria is the User, a future employee of the District of Columbia who demonstrates frustration about the application process. She has just completed applications for grade 7 and 9 positions. She is motivated, organized and seeks transparency around process. She is uncertain about the status of her application or timeline of the hiring process.
The persona for the bot is Whaley using the Whale as metaphor for its stability in navigating a space as vast as the ocean, or government hiring.
The conversational tone is playful to ease the tension of the user who may be feeling tired or anxious around seeking employment.
Design Hypothesis
By providing an assistive chatbot, can the service experience be improved for applicants and employees? And, how may a chatbot be designed to answer questions such as status inquiry, timeline updates and to document the overall user experience?
Whiteboard for user flow and early use tests
Design and Rapid Prototyping in Low and Mid Fidelity
I ideated using the white board and early testing to understand and refine decision flow. I employed an additional round of rapid lo-fi prototyping with the white board to determine and test dialogue flow and CUI architecture.
Conversational Flow
Repeated user testing informed the need for more contextualization of the choice to use the Whale persona. I added introductory language to anchor the meaning of the Whale as a guide and friend in a new, vast environment such as the ocean or government hiring.
User testing reveals a need to provide more information and adjust use flow