Designing a Couples-Based Conversational Agent to Promote Safe Sex in New, Young Couples: A User-Centred Design Approach

The uptake of conversational agents (CAs) to deliver digital sexual health interventions is growing. While current CAs only address one user at a time, research suggests that couples-based interventions may be more effective at promoting safe sex in non-casual relationships by improving relationship functioning. In this paper, we describe user-centred design activities undertaken towards the design of a couples-based chatbot to address safe sex in new, young couples. A two-step approach was undertaken, in which young people were interviewed about their preferences and ideas, and sexual health professionals took part in a design thinking workshop. The design activities yielded a rich set of design guidelines from both groups, as well as a paper-and-pen prototype of the proposed CA from the workshop. As expected, trust was raised by both stakeholders as an important determinant of use and therefore heavily informs the design guidelines.