Personalization Trade-offs in Designing a Dialogue-based Information System for Support-Seeking of Sexual Violence Survivors

TL;DR

This paper explores personalization trade-offs in designing dialogue-based information systems for sexual violence survivors, highlighting the balance between specificity and sensitivity, and relevancy and inclusiveness, through prototype development and expert interviews.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework for understanding personalization trade-offs and proposes a reversed design approach to better support diverse survivor needs.

Findings

Identified two key personalization trade-offs: specificity vs. sensitivity, and relevancy vs. inclusiveness.

Developed a high-fidelity prototype based on workshop sessions and interviews.

Proposed a reversed design approach focusing on information and inclusive tailoring.

Abstract

The lack of reliable, personalized information often complicates sexual violence survivors' support-seeking. Recently, there is an emerging approach to conversational information systems for support-seeking of sexual violence survivors, featuring personalization with wide availability and anonymity. However, a single best solution might not exist as sexual violence survivors have different needs and purposes in seeking support channels. To better envision conversational support-seeking systems for sexual violence survivors, we explore personalization trade-offs in designing such information systems. We implement a high-fidelity prototype dialogue-based information system through four design workshop sessions with three professional caregivers and interviewed with four self-identified survivors using our prototype. We then identify two forms of personalization trade-offs for conversational support-seeking systems: (1) specificity and sensitivity in understanding users and (2) relevancy and inclusiveness in providing information. To handle these trade-offs, we propose a reversed approach that starts from designing information and inclusive tailoring that considers unspecified needs, respectively.