Time, goals, and managing time in the right way can be hard, why not have a virtual assistant that can help you set a goal, and find support where needed?
Synopsis
Time management, setting tasks and goals in fuzzy timeframes has become an interest for me since I started with therapy for stress-related personality traits. From my own experience, bad time management was a big source of personal stress. Several personal and academic projects were planned badly, and by this, my goals were blurred. Setting a task is the first step into better time management, making this goal small in quick small steps is the second step to take for getting a grasp on time management. As quick research I decided to look into chatbots, and how these digital assistants can help students to set up a task.
Topic
Most students that start their courses in their first academic year struggle with keeping up a tight schedule for maintaining homework and handing in assessments. To help students this study aims to set goals over time for students and helping them complete their goals in a certain timeframe.
To set up this goal there has been preliminary research, this study has looked into already existing applications that were out there, most applications focused on: Time planning(calendar-based), community building, or meditation to directly calm the user. Directly contact with a therapist or a setup with counseling, or just relaxation tips.
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Besides preliminary research for looking into applications, there were also some papers and theories that were of utmost importance for this study. The first theory that is relevant is the Theory of Flow(Sheehan & Katz, 2012, p. 61), this theory gives the user focus on how to set up a task, and what motivation pillars are needed for getting into a work‘flow’.
What makes the Theory of Flow interesting for this study is that the columns of this theory will help guide the user to achieve a certain task in a set time frame, this can be a principle for the digital intervention. The balance of the Theory Of Flow is based on the following columns or elements: Balance between the difficulty and individuals proficiency, apparent goals, Immediate feedback, action and awareness, focussed concentration, decreased self-consciousness, perception of control, decreased awareness of time.
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Diving further into this, also to consider for this study is the setting of goals, SMART goals(Blaine Lawlor & Hornyak, 2012, p. 260) is a useable methodology. It’s a broadly applied method that is been taught to first and second-year college students.
The last theory that can help for getting results is the positive psychology theory, or long-term and short-term goals. These are theories that can help this study with making a clear goal for the iterations of the chatbots that I need.
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The focus from chatbots come in this study when there were only solutions based on calendar applications or health applications. The focus and goal were to help students in a low effort way as possible hence why the technology chatbot emerged.
Prototype iterations and user tests
Itertaion 1
The first iteration was build with landboit.io, one of the case studies that has been done for this research was into the chatbot ADA.
Furthermore, I’ve used a small user test to determine if this concept works, it did not.
For my next iteration, I was looking into gamification, for this, I’ve used the gamification canvas(Nik, 2020) to help me understand this subject better, freedom of choice, rewards, and giving feedback back to the user must be central in my second iteration.
For the gamification, I focused on the achievers, users that are focused on obtaining a goal or setting a status. They can be engaged in a product by achievements, or a quest.
Gamification Canvas for iteration 3
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Iteration 2
Iteration 2
The second iteration started with a chatbot in IBM Watson, I thought this was the best step to take as the progress seems from the landbot.io chatbot was very straightforward. After trying to make the chatbot work I discovered I couldn’t get a grip on IBM Watson, and needed to look for a different solution. IBM Watson didn’t work for me as the chatbot didn’t address my custom variables, also the user only could use direct questions which didn’t seem handy for gamification
Still, with this iteration, the solution was too much text-based, and give the user a load of text back. The tool Power Virtual Agents by Microsoft Power BI was a good no-code solution for a chatbot, you can load in images by placing actions and making a really easy conversation tree with this bot. I added a mascot to the chatbot to make it a tad bit more lighthearted.
In the last iteration, I went back to landbot.io, as it seemed like the best fit to further explore gamification in a prototype.
For this prototype I’ve set up the following scenario: you’re a student that needs help setting a goal, you’re struggling with making your goal clear, and need tools/tips for this. In your digital environment, the student can find a chatbot to help with setting a goal.
In this scenario the chatbots give the user a quest prompt, namely collecting pieces of a journal together. With tips and tricks for setting goals, according to the SMART goals and gamification theories.
Insights from the last iteration
The first try of gamification wasn’t as specific enough, as the user didn’t get the user goal or prompt.
The second try of gamification was already a tidbit better, be it that the user could have multiple choices and get help with dividing tasks up into smaller tasks.
In the end, the quest for a shredded journal was something that clicked more with the user than at the start of the third iteration. However, the way of setting a task with a chatbot isn’t great, as it’s too much of a hassle for the user.
From this assignment finding a right tool for setting goals with users was a task on itself. Finding the right way to adress users on their behavior, giving them a way of feedback to work towards completing a task was harder than it seems. The gamification was a new way for me to think about user engagement, with the last iteration focused on engaging users into a(small) quest to collect pages from a journal to collect all the tips for setting up a task.
The method was really interesting to use, setting a goal inside a gamification canvas was interesting on it’s own because it let me think from a new perspective with using a chatbot(coming up with a quest prompt, engaging users in a new way). However, a big plot or setting up leaderboards in a chatbot was a bit too difficult to execute, so that’s why I kept it at‘quest’ level, and answering questions.
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Furthermore, tools like Virtual Assistant by Microsoft, or even Azure Bot services and/or IBM Watson seem to be the right tools for developing a chatbot that can give feedback back to the user about setting a task. I want to try more with chatbots and added code solutions, as time seems fit for a next research and gaining more insights than only the flow of conversation and/or features of different tools.
However, as seen from the goal for this study; a chatbot can’t be used to direct a user to setting a goal or a task on a daily basis. As it seems from the theory of flow, for starting a task, or setting a goal first chatting with a chatbot seems like an unnecessary step. What seems insightfull from this study is that a chatbot to ask for help with different methods of setting a goal or a task seems eventful for students.
In conclusion: a chatbot for setting a task is not eventful, however using a chatbot to gain new insights into planning a task can work!
References
Blaine Lawlor, K., & Hornyak, M. J. (2012). HOW THE APPLICATION OF SMART GOALS CAN CONTRIBUTE TO ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 39, 259–267. Consulted from https://absel-ojs-ttu.tdl.org/absel/index.php/absel/%20article/view/90/0
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