Design for Tension: Chatbot.
How might a chatbot address the interests of the Government of India to support the enforcement of a nation-wide food rationing program amidst an impending food crisis? The Chatbot, built through Flow XO, was created for the Government of India to support food rationing, envisioning that a food crisis would occur in India. It would serve as an informal eligibility checker to determine whether an Indian citizen would be eligible to apply for an increase in food supply. As the government would be controlling society’s scarce resources in the hypothetical future, we aimed to address the possible power dynamics between the government and citizens in our chatbot conversations. This course project was created by Wu, Q. (team leader), Ho, J., Thu, A., and Tsang, C. at the University of Toronto.
A Speculative Design: Why India?
To capture the essence of speculative design in the chatbot design, our team looked towards the future of India by assessing the country’s current/ongoing challenges and opportunities.
As the chatbot would be accessed mainly through smartphones, the expected ubiquity of smartphones in India would improve the feasibility of implementing the chatbot on a large scale. The estimated penetration rate of smartphones will reach 96% by 2040 (Sun, 2021).
​
In terms of the big issue—food insecurity—that our team is aiming to address, it has been an ongoing and major concern in India. In 2020, India was ranked 14 globally in terms of being most affected by hunger and malnutrition (Szmigiera, 2021). Famines will occur when India’s population grows at a faster rate than food output, which will call for the need for rationing to manage scarce food resources.
​
The food rationing system may also be influenced by the constructed differences among social classes, as it can be a political tool to practice social control. Our team assumes that the Indian Caste System would be brought back by the Indian government to guide status evaluation. The System was historically the main dimension of how the Indian population was divided based on occupation and gave unequal access to valued resources like wealth, prestige, and power (Pandey & Varrkey, 2020). The four major ranks or castes were and would be (a) Brahmans, the priestly class; (b) Kshatriyas, government officials and soldiers; (c) Vaishyas, the trader class; and (d) Shudras, who did other menial work and service (Pandey & Varrkey, 2020). Different castes will be valued differently, and thus food supplies would be distributed unequally. The measurement of the worthiness of a caste would be closely related to the capitalistic need of accumulation (of food supplies) and social dominance (by having more food supplies than inferior caste members). Our team assumes that the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas would enjoy the same privileges and the greatest access to food supplies, since the government, who would own and control society’s food supplies, would place itself in one of the highest social positions. Wealth inequality has been evident in today’s society in India. Income and societal resources have been shifting away from the majority towards the wealthy minority, where “a substantial segment of the population is being forced to eat less food and wear older clothing than before” (Patnaik, 2009). This situation was even exacerbated by the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the recent COVID-19 recession, as they have led to unemployment rises and constrained mass consumption (Patnaik, 2009).
The Design Process
The preliminary design stages of our chatbot consist of brainstorming ideas, collecting information, and framing the design problem. We started the design process by brainstorming ideas of possible futures by sharing what we read about or watched in science-fiction movies and TV shows. We also conducted research on ongoing technological trends and social issues to speculate about a more possible future, identifying gaps of social needs to inspire our chatbot design (see Step 1 in PDF). During our second brainstorming session (see Step 2), we ultimately selected an idea closest to today’s reality, which is also our current idea. Humanity’s position in our envisioned future of a food crisis is then illustrated by the moodboard.
​
Chatbot flows in steps 3-6 are artifacts created through the processes of role-playing. While one person represented the chatbot/government, two of my colleagues assumed to be citizens from disparate social classes. I then observed the languages used and the class discrimination occurred to visualize or alter our conversation flows. Role-playing and observation were effective collaborative learning methods. I learned to design and improve chatbot conversations from a user’s perspective, as the user’s background information (e.g., social status) would act as inputs for assessing their eligibility for a food supply increase. By experiencing the cultural, social, and political implications of implementing a food rationing system in our hypothetical future, I was equipped with the ability to design for tension and ensure that the flows were comprehensive and goal-oriented.