Improving Public Service Chatbot Design and Civic Impact: Investigation of Citizens' Perceptions of a Metro City 311 Chatbot

TL;DR

This study investigates citizens' perceptions of a city 311 public service chatbot, highlighting design challenges and proposing opportunities for more community-oriented, transparent, and intelligent chatbot designs to enhance civic engagement.

Contribution

It provides a qualitative analysis of stakeholder experiences and offers design recommendations to improve public service chatbots' civic impact.

Findings

Citizens face challenges in interpretation, transparency, and social contextualization.

Current chatbots focus on individual tasks but neglect community interactions.

Design opportunities include making chatbots more intelligent, transparent, and community-oriented.

Abstract

As governments increasingly adopt digital tools, public service chatbots have emerged as a growing communication channel. This paper explores the design considerations and engagement opportunities of public service chatbots, using a 311 chatbot from a metropolitan city as a case study. Our qualitative study consisted of official survey data and 16 interviews examining stakeholder experiences and design preferences for the chatbot. We found two key areas of concern regarding these public chatbots: individual-level and community-level. At the individual level, citizens experience three key challenges: interpretation, transparency, and social contextualization. Moreover, the current chatbot design prioritizes the efficient completion of individual tasks but neglects the broader community perspective. It overlooks how individuals interact and discuss problems collectively within their communities. To address these concerns, we offer design opportunities for creating more intelligent, transparent, community-oriented chatbots that better engage individuals and their communities.