erica lee


Ponder



A conversational AI to help build a habit of empathy.



Team

Netty Lim

Hannah Mei

Timothy Kwan

Elleyce Pahang

Rachel Connelly


My Roles

Storyboarding

Research

Wizard of oz(ing)


Project Brief

Microsoft Expo "Empathy at Scale"


Winter 2019



Ponder is our submission for the Microsoft Design Expo. The challenge this year was "Empathy at scale."

Ponder is a conversational AI that helps individuals realize their own biases, process their own emotions, and open up to other perspectives so that a habit of building empathy is developed.



What does it mean to be empathetic?



We believe empathy is built through considering others’ perspectives and emotions, often through imagination if we haven’t had a similar experience. However, to even start the process of empathizing, we first need to process our thoughts and emotions in order to look beyond our biases. This is what we call reflection. Without reflection, these emotions become obstacles to empathy.


Therefore we have designed Ponder. A conversational AI that guides you through this activity of reflection and ultimately, help you apply empathetic thinking more often.



Who does Ponder help?



Those who can't find the time and space to express their emotions


In this video, our character Anna is cut off when she tries to pitch her ideas. She wants to talk about it with her friend, but they are unavailable. Ponder aims to provide the space and time necessary for someone like Anna to be able to express their emotions in a positive and productive manner. This hopes to ensure that they aren't left to swim in their own negativity which may discourage them from moving forward.



Those who won't realize their own biases


In this video, our character Rob is caught up in a fit of rage when a car is driving too slow in front of him. This could very well prevent him from recognizing and overcoming his own biases if he were to dwell on it without reflecting. He represents those who may tend to be more self-involved leading them to a habit of being unaware of people's situations. Ponder aims to help people like Rob to reflect on the conflict retroactively and recognize different narratives as a means to understand those around us.



How people handle conflict without Ponder



Without a presence like Ponder to help guide reflection, people are often unable to process their emotions in a productive manner which can lead to misunderstandings that hinder our ability to be open and understanding of others. Additionally, sometimes those close to us aren’t the best suited to help guide us through productive reflection. In order to avoid conflict themselves, they often resort to validating negative emotions.



How people handle conflict with Ponder



With Ponder, It first allows us to have a safe, no-judgement space to recount our conflict. Then it guides us through the process of productive reflection by asking clarifying questions to understand the situation, and asks reflective questions that break the cycle of validation we might get from others.



How does Ponder work?



We’ve broken it down to a strong on-boarding process, effective identification of the context of conflicts, and storytelling to introduce different narratives. These three main interactions of Ponder help it work to create trust and guide reflection.



Strong on-boarding



At first use, on-boarding will help Ponder understand the user and their personality, how they currently deal with conflicts, etc. This helps Ponder as an AI cater the conversation to be most productive.



Identifying context



When individuals are using Ponder to talk about their conflict, Ponder picks up on keywords and tones such as “feel bad” and “friends make fun” in order to understand the conflict/situation beyond the user’s initial biases/emotions in order to ask better clarifying and reflective questions to the user.



Storytelling



The story that is generated is based on anecdotes found through online articles, that introduces a perspective that the user may have not initially considered. The user is able to go deeper into the sources that Ponder pulls from if they wish to do so.



Designing for a conversational UI



When designing Ponder, we wanted to be clear about where Ponder’s strength lies by outlining what it does and does not do.



What Ponder does



+ Be present when others can't

+ Introduce new perspectives for thought

+ Help set goals for progress



What Ponder does not



+ Replace your human relationships

+ Force you to change your perspective

+ Define and measure your success



What was the process to get here?



Breaking down how empathy is evoked



We began by breaking down how people respond to conflicts and friction (internally and externally) with other people in order to understand the journey to empathetic responses. From this, we synthesized the process into a three-part framework of how someone would interact with Ponder:

  1. Venting
    A space for individuals to express their emotions associated with a conflict that they encountered.
  2. Recounting
    A way to help examine the conflict retrospectively.
  3. Reflection
    Developing self-awareness and being more open to other perspectives.

It's important that through this process, people will come to an empathetic viewpoint themselves, rather than having a product forcing it upon them.



Wizard of Oz



To test our concept, we did a few rounds of Wizard of Oz sessions. Fist we asked them to go through the process of venting, recounting, and reflecting with themselves, then with a friend, and then with "Ponder." To fake Ponder, we hid a speaker in a tissue box and placed it in a room with a participant. In the meantime, Elleyce, Netty, and I were frantically coming up with responses and questions in a different room to have a mock conversation with the participant. These are the guidelines that came about this activity:

  1. Building rapport
    There needs to be a strong on-boarding process when individuals are first introduced to Ponder to build trust so that the individual will feel comfortable with sharing.
  2. Visual feedback
    Like other conversational UIs, Ponder should convey some visual cue that it is listening.
  3. Always have an escape route
    Sometimes individuals simply don't want to continue talking to Ponder. It's important that we respect.
  4. Always ask neutral, open-ended questions
    Our first goal is simply to ask questions that help navigate what the individual is feeling.


Breaking down how empathy is evoked



We began by breaking down how people respond to conflicts and friction (internally and externally) with other people in order to understand the journey to empathetic responses. From this, we synthesized the process into a three-part framework of how someone would interact with Ponder:

  1. Venting
    A space for individuals to express their emotions associated with a conflict that they encountered.
  2. Recounting
    A way to help examine the conflict retrospectively.
  3. Reflection
    Developing self-awareness and being more open to other perspectives.

It's important that through this process, people will come to an empathetic viewpoint themselves, rather than having a product forcing it upon them.



When it all came together



Many thanks to our wonderful video team for bring Ponder to life!



By using Ponder, we hope to help individuals reevaluate their initial responses, think about their situations more thoroughly, and imagine different perspectives until a habit of continuous learning is developed where they would no longer have to rely on Ponder.