User-Centered Design of a Texas WIC ChatBot: Formative Investigation
Date
2019-02-27Metadata
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Introduction
- The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) serves people at nutritional risk, including:
- Low income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women
- Children from infancy to the age of 5
- WIC provides:
- Vouchers for healthful foods
- Health care referrals
- Nutrition education counseling
- Enrollment has been declining.
- Most WIC participants use smartphones, and many choose to take their nutrition education classes from WIC online.
- While there is information regarding eligibility on the Texas WIC website, there is currently no way for potential participants to ask questions about eligibility and make appointments.
- We collaborated with Texas WIC to obtain USDA funding to investigate developing a ChatBot to meet this gap.
Objective:
- To develop a WIC ChatBot prototype based on input from stakeholders and potential users.
Methods:
- Compliant with the university IRB.
- Employ User-centered Design to the process of developing the WIC ChatBot prototype (Figure 1).
- The first step, reported here, involves concept generation based on the results of online group interviews and focus groups with:
- Stakeholders in Texas WIC and cooperating states and territories: 1 focus group, 2 group interviews; n=7
- Texas WIC clinic directors: 1 group interview; 3 focus groups; n=13
- Texas WIC staff: 1 group interview; 3 focus groups; n=12. Participants were recruited via email and phone calls.
- Participants were recruited via email and phone calls.