Overview

When I was asked to create my first chatbot, I wanted to create a bot that would be able to answer voting questions. This is because the answers to some voting questions are not so straightforward and/or difficult to find on government websites. Even though I used a government website for all of my answers, it is much quicker to ask my bot a question than to sift through the website to find it.

About Eager Emily

Eager Emily helps the user connect with Colorado resources related to registering to vote. It is much easier for the user to ask their specific questions to a bot rather than sift through a boring, lengthy FAQ page. Eager Emily answers 15 questions about registering to vote in Colorado, providing concise answers and links to resources. She uses plain and simplistic language for quick understanding. She has humanity, showing enthusiasm and displaying reactions to user responses.

Process

Eager Emily was created by ideating questions residents may have about registering to vote in Colorado. This was completed by researching different resources, such as FAQ’s on www.govotecolorado.com and https://howto.vote. From there, I thought about secondary and tertiary sets of questions the user may have from the answer they received. I mapped out these questions in Miro.

For example, if they could not make the registration deadline and needed to register in person, where could they do this?

Eager Emily also provides a link to a list of county clerks if she is unable to answer any of the user’s questions.

Eager Emily was created in Botsociety.

Eager Emily first lists the voter registration requirements and asks the user if they are eligible before answering any further questions. If they are not, she says she is unable to help.

Target Audience

Eager Emily was created for people who need help with their voter registration in Colorado. The largest group of new registered voters are young people. New Era Colorado registered 24,000 new young voters in the state of the past election cycle (Posey, 2020). Eager Emily connects with young people by showing excitement and minimizing response length and complexity.

Posey, K. (2020, November 3). Young voters turn out in Colorado for 2020 election. Retrieved from https://kdvr.com/news/politics/election/young-voters-turn-out-in-colorado-for-2020-election/

Testing

I had someone test my bot and adjusted any dead ends that were found. Their complaint was that they could not type to the bot and had to choose answers, which I understand is way less exciting, but this version does not allow user input and there are predetermined responses. They thought overall that it was helpful and much better than going to the government website. I knew my bot was complete because I felt I had covered every question I could about registering to vote and it performed without errors.

Prototype

This video shows the majority of the exchanges between Eager Emily and the constituent.