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A 10-15 minute browser-based health care provider (HCP) chatbot experience that clarifies common misconceptions around the COVID-19 vaccine, in which users can direct the flow of questions through a pre-made dialogue tree.
Since most of the misinformation (in English) is spread via Facebook and Instagram, we will be launching our content from there as a link to the hosting site, with a relevant thumbnail image attached to encourage click rate (as opposed to just a naked link). We’re cognizant that our personal online followings aren't impressive and will contact the faculty to see if we can make use of the BMC social medias as well. We will also use nepotism and make our friends share it on their profiles. While Twitter and Tumblr were not cited as main sources of misinformation spread, they may also serve as decent platforms for distribution.
Since people tend to google in a way that affirms their existing bias, we need to be careful in how to make our project searchable. It must be different enough from existing content so the project doesn't get buried into page 3 of results, but be relevant enough to be appear on the googling radar of people who are COVID-19 vaccine hesitant.
Misconceptions/Fear Believing that the vaccine does more harm than good.
Confusion Is hesitant and skeptical due to the flood of information from both pro and anti-vaccine sides.
Overly optimistic Believes that the vaccine is the silver bullet that will end the pandemic immediately.
Believes in COVID-19, and most other vaccines. They largely trust science, but does not understand it.
<aside> 🌟 User accessibility concerns Low science literacy Low tech fluency
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The learning strategy is based on a simulated conversation between the user and a health care professional (HCP).
This HCP chatbot will address common vaccine questions using lay language, 2D graphics, and metaphors.
The user can direct the flow of questions through the question bank.
The user’s feelings/confusion towards the vaccine are valid. Our goal is to help dislodge the misinformation that they’ve assimilated.
The goal of our project is two fold: to address their immediate concerns at a high level and to guide them towards resources to answer more granulated concerns
The idea is to nudge them in the right direction and promote future autonomous learning rather than completely changing their views on the vaccine.
This will hopefully help them be more open to changing their views/opinions on a topic once they encounter new but credible information.
Before:
The user has a certain opinion about the vaccine and has a certain degree of resistance to information that opposes that opinion.
During:
They are confronted with information that likely opposes their preconceived opinion.
The empathetic tone and easy to digest information sways their stance on their preivously held belief.
The user can take as much time as they need to sift through this new information. Additional sources are provided to reinforce the credibility of the information in our work.
After:
The user has higher willingness to adapt their opinion based on new and credible information.
The user gains a higher level of autonomy in future information gathering.
The scientific content will come from peer reviewed sources, resources gathered from the AMI, and reputable news outlets.
The scientific content will adress the safety, effectiveness, and development of the vaccine.
News sources will be used to adress the economical motive related questions.
Our project is not meant to be the silver bullet to users' hesitancy and questions, but rather as a place to openly explore them without consequence or judgement. We thought it would be important to offer links to further reading that elaborates on sections that they may want to know more about.
We will also include a “show source” feature that toggles the in text hyperlinks references that we used for research. As well as a full APA style reference arranged by section at the end.
We will code the project with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, suitable for both the scope of the project and for a variety of user browsers. Support for the major mobile browsers (Safari and Chrome) will be guaranteed.
Because information evolves so rapidly now, we will likely include the date of when the research/science content was last updated when this goes live, to avoid losing credibility for content doesn’t match up with future affairs.
We will make sure to add the full UofT MScBMC affiliation to our project, so the validity of it won’t be questioned.
The information is largely organized into 3 sections, based on the emotion/opinion the user has towards the vaccine.
For example, a single user cannot both be fearful of the vaccine and overly optimistic about it at the same time.
This architecture is set up to build a manageable dialogue tree and to ease friction in the user experience.
Viewer can choose follow up questions that naturally push the conversation forward
The user will pick questions from the options in order to direct the topic of conversation to what matters to them the most.
The overall style of interaction is meant to approximate a texting experience, but with users choosing from a bank of questions instead of free entry. This type of communication is leveraged due to its familiarity to even the least tech fluent user. We hope this helps lower the barrier to adoption.
We are in part targeting demographics that may have lower tech literacy. Thus, we aim to have as many features in plain sight as possible. This includes cutting back on hover interactions, minimizing the amount of steps required to access menus, and lessening the number of different types of interactions or menus in general.
As this project aims to be a quick information resource for the lay public, who may be viewing items on the go or when introduced to it by friends and family, we are opting for a mobile first approach. T he project will be designed with a restriction on hover interactions in mind, and mimic a basic chat app format to leverage the users’ existing experience with mobile platforms.
The scope of how we answer each question will not be too in depth, as there are many questions to address and we don’t want to tire the reader out or decrease their willingness to learn more by equating learning more about COVID-19 with 'taxing and long'.
While a more cartoony style might not align with the seriousness of the topic at hand for some people, we believe that a lighter mood and a more relaxed feeling can help alleviate the high strung state we’ve all been in. Furthermore, there’s plenty of no nonsense clear to the point content out there, and we don’t need to fill an occupied niche.
We also aim to use a more empathetic and narrative approach as opposed to the ‘straight list of facts’ and purely logically disproving their wrongful scientific notions. We believe it’s sorely needed, especially in the times of pandemic, where everyone has been constantly on high anxiety and fatigue. In the end, this enables them to look at everything at their own pace, minimizing the feeling of pressure and the need to be defensive.
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Millennials are Screwed Huffington Post, as the title says. An immediate physical assault on your eyes and a seizure trigger waiting to happen tbh so minus hella points for that BUT otherwise well designed and fairly informative piece on why millennials are fucked compared to older generations. Very cohesive design between some graphics and looots of dense text, some of the visuals are REALLY nice in teaching/revealing important info as you scroll (ie. how urban prices have skyrocketed, showing development of city over time)
The Birthday Paradox Experiment Cute interactive piece that walks you through a probability question basically. Less scrollytelling vibes than the others, though it does have some scrolling to it. The interactive part is the fun part though. The interactivity and the pacing at which they explain a concept that could easily get muddy / break it down in a personal tone are both good inspo for our project.
How Do mRNA Vaccines Work? Here's What You Should Know mRNA has in development for 20 yrs Contains no pieces of the vaccine Reproduces same immune response as an actual infection, without the actual infection mRNA never enters nucleus If you’ve had COVID-19, should still get the vaccine, bc we still don’t know how long the immunity lasts
Funded Research Database: serves to keep the research community informed about ongoing multidisciplinary COVID-19 projects across Canada
Funding Opportunities Database: serves to keep the research community informed about COVID-19 related funding opportunities available to Canadian researchers.
Expertise Database: facilitates collaborations between Canadian researchers, and serves to connect members of the media with multidisciplinary experts.
Reagent Database: helps connect Canadian researchers for the exchange of reagents required for COVID-19-related research.
#ScienceExplained: one of our science communication initiatives that combines the powers of our Expertise and Volunteer Databases, by producing expert-vetted content (articles, videos, infographics) in multiple languages (e.g. Arabic, Farsi, French, Spanish, Chinese, Urdu, etc.). Stay-tuned for exciting announcement regarding opportunities to participate in the production of #ScienceExplained content!
COVID Discussions: a virtual kitchen table discussion series, where YOU, the public and experts come together to chat about everything COVID-19 related. Our aim is to provide a safe space for everyone to bring their questions about the science and social aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel Horizontal scroll that’s deliberately tedious af to drive home how fucking big the solar system is Includes snarky remarks, but also quick buttons to travel to notable points Cool inspo! Informative and impactful yet pretty minimal(?) Cool use of horizontal scroll (also nice smooth fixed scrolls)
Bird Migration Good ol National Geographic coming in clutch. Really informative graphics, turns a fairly dense piece into bites of informative info. Nicely centered and fairly simple layout that works really well. Inspo for level of infographic literacy maybe? Multiple maps in one section depending on the button you click is also nice. Also the clearly contained sections that are fairly consistent in layout but still effective.
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