Twitterbot Group 2

Veg Bot

The Makers' Statement

Attention, attention! Calling all our veggie pals and fruit fam!

We would like to introduce you to Veg Bot (@CalPolyVegBox)!

Veg Bot supports the Real Food Collaborative (RFC)--an on-campus club--in their mission to educate and provide ethically, locally, and sustainably sourced foods for the students of Cal Poly. They aim to provide fresh produce through a service known as the Veg Box.

What Is a Veg Box?

For 3 years now, the RFC has partnered with the Cal Poly Organic Farm to initiate a subscription service for healthy foods. This service became the Veg Box: it connects Cal Poly students with real, local food in an easy and affordable manner.

Veg Box Plan:

one-time payment of $100
5 boxes
1 box every 2 weeks
3 months total

Students have the options to subscribe to a Veg Box plan or purchase single boxes. A new rotation of boxes starts at the beginning of every academic quarter. Thus, students have more flexibility and the option for short term commitment.

Veg Box Plan:

one-time payment of $100
5 boxes
1 box every 2 weeks
3 months total

What Is Veg Bot’s Purpose?

Veg Bot was created from its epic user story:

As a Cal Poly Student interested in healthy and sustainably sourced foods, I want to learn more about the Veg Box so that I am better informed if and/or when I choose to subscribe to the plan.

Our bot’s purpose is to put a voice to the Veg Box distributed by the RFC. Instead of simply promoting the subscription service, we hoped to get our audience excited about it. So, we invite them to learn more, ask questions, and pursue further information if they so desire.

We want to reach out to the student population of Cal Poly, who--if not already consumers of fresh fruits and veggies--would be interested in learning more about the Veg Box plan and the fresh produce it offers.

What About the Design Choices?

Veg Bot is closely affiliated with the RFC, so we were careful to consider the club’s identity when designing our bot.

Account Details

While our Twitter handle is not the most original, it clearly identifies our bot’s affiliation with the RFC. Including “Bot” in the name explicitly tells our audience that they are receiving and interacting with tweets from a bot.

Currently, our bot follows 13 other accounts, but the list is ever-growing. Not only does this showcase Veg Bot’s love for sustainably sourced foods, but it also promotes its passion for healthy eating and living.

Bot Persona

Our bot persona is a friendly, local veggie-lover, who is witty and tweets fruit/veggie-inspired content. Its “terms of endearment” (i.e., fruit fanatics, veggie heads, veg fam, etc.) and casual salutations exude a presence that is both inviting and relaxing. Meanwhile, its use of exclamation points and fruit/veggie-inspired puns and riddles show our bot’s playful side. Writing with enthusiastic and energetic tones appeals to our audience and relates back to the central interest of eating and gaining easy access to fresh produce.

Aesthetics

The page’s aesthetics also reflect this playfulness and levity. A simple, colorful arrangement of fruits and vegetables is the banner image, reinforcing the bot’s affiliation with Veg Box (and its love for fresh produce!). Accented with yellow, the page is inviting and evokes a warm, almost neighborly vibe. Furthermore, the profile picture of a smiling carrot reinforces the RFC's atmosphere, one that is safe, friendly, and wholesome.

Connecting to the RFC

At this time, the club's website is still in progress. Once the website is published, we will work with RFC members to enable direct links to our bot (just as we tweet out direct links to their Facebook page). Due to the club's high demand of service, the RFC is creating a larger web presence, and we believe that Veg Bot will be a positive source of online dialogue.

Were There Ethical Concerns?

First and foremost, Veg Bot is a member of Cal Poly’s RFC. The bot's affiliation with the club inspired a bot persona that was all-inclusive. In fact, it was imperative that our bot did not take on stereotypical characteristics of any social communities.

Advertising

We were concerned that advertising for the Veg Box subscription would become too vigorous or potentially even forceful. We wanted to be sensitive to the RFC’s values, and we certainly did not want our audience to feel like our bot was commanding them to subscribe. However, in response to user feedback, we made the sign-up sheet readily accessible (link is in our bot's bio) for those who wanted direct access to the subscription plan.

Finding a Balance

With no way of getting around the advertising, we strived for a balance between promoting (promote the Veg Box service) and non-promoting tweets.

Promoting Tweets

Non-Promoting Tweets

doubting, curious by,

questions and concerns, etc.

try out, learn more

consider getting, etc.

Hey there, veggie pal! Do you want fresh produce? Then look into a Veg Box!

Interested in the Veg Box? Come and ask questions: https://www.facebook.com/pg/realfoodcollaborative

hover over me!

An apple!

A tomato!

GUESS THE FRUIT:

Snow White, don't eat this...

SOLVE THE RIDDLE:

This can't decide if

it's a fruit or vegetable...

me too!

We "cushioned" the language here. While both examples promote the Veg Box, the language is softer and more neutral. The example on the bottom even gives direct access to more info.

We use playful and friendly language here and keep the tone casual. As requested by our followers, Veg Bot now tweets puns, veggie facts, and seasonal recipes!

Timing of Tweets

After our usability testing, we realized that Veg Bot's presence was not assertive enough. In fact, our followers wanted to see more of its tweets on their feeds. Now, our bot tweets every hour. However, in order to remain conscious of heavy-handed advertising, we coded the schedule to tweet more non-promoting tweets.*

*Potential Technical Difficulty:

To our best knowledge, the coding for this seems correct, but it is completely possible that things have gone awry. If you suspect that our coding is incorrect, please direct message @CalPolyVegBox and let us know. Thank you in advance!

What Do Our Followers Think?

We highly value Veg Bot's followers, so we asked them for some user feedback.

They were asked the following questions:

What is your first impression?
What do you think Veg Bot’s purpose (or user story) is? Does it achieve this? Why or why not?
What works well? Why?
What can be improved? Why?
Which tweets did you find more engaging? Why?
What about the timing of the tweets? Were there specific tweets you wanted to see more or less?
How can the bot persuade you to participate more?
What would you do to achieve Veg Bot’s user story? How can the bot assist you with this task? Can you predict any difficulties you might have?

The usability tests helped finalize our design choices. It also helped address and remedy our ethical concerns.

What Are Our Takeaways?

Veg Bot was an eye-opening experience for us. These are our biggest takeaways.

Accessibility

There is an endless amount of knowledge accessible to us. With this Twitterbot alone, we had access to information that enabled us to code, to make a brand, and to create an online presence. We can do these things; we may not be "tech-y," we may not be "experts," but our work on Veg Bot proves that we just have to go for it.

Narratives and Branding

The process of creating our bot gave us the chance to experiment with branding. That is, making the creative decisions that influence our brand, or in this case, our bot persona. However, Veg Bot would not exist without its user story. We realized that behind any brand or persona is a story, a narrative that informs all of the creative choices. If anything, our experience with Veg Bot reaffirmed this belief: there is value in narratives.

The Creators of Veg Bot