Carissa The.

Project:

Watson Moments

Watson is the brand for IBM’s AI technology. In 2019, a predictive Health insights with The Weather Company was launched, analysing 50,000 sources at a local level and providing 47 million active users unique actionable information—not just data

IBM Watson serves up flu risk predictions to users of the Weather Channel app. The feature, which is partnered by CVS Pharmacy, makes use of IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) system, Watson, to provide information about the flu season, letting people know when they are most at risk of coming down with something.

Studio:

Client:

Creative Director:

AKQA

IBM

Tim Shelley

Associate Director:

Motion Designer:

Designer:

Caroline Hilman

Ryan Jones,

Carissa The,

Shaun Abernathy

Nikki Lee

Problem

Historically, the flu information available for consumers has been based on current or past flu activity. Any type of predictive flu information out there wasn’t local enough. To bridge this gap, The Weather Company, collaborated with Watson to create a new AI-powered feature within The Weather Channel app called Flu Insights With Watson.

Tapping into multiple data sources including weather, anonymized health data, search ads and social data, Flu Insights With Watson uses artificial intelligence to assess local influenza risk up to 15 days in advance. Through predictive modeling for weather-driven ailments, this new feature gives IBM the tool to extend its reach to active audience, providing an extra layer of value between the product and consumer. Using this data, families are able to be more well equiped to prepare against the flu.

The Weather Company — Correlating weather with health data, we demonstrated how humidity and other climatic factors can affect the spread of flu. Giving people the information they needed to prepare for outbreaks in their area.

Research

To gauge consumer awareness about flu season, The Weather Company sponsored a study in partnership with Morning Consult, to illustrate preparedness tactics.

According to the study, 83% of respondents report that avoiding the flu is important, however, a substantial number of respondents (37%) do not get a flu shot. In addition, 62% of Baby Boomers report always getting a flu shot to prepare for flu season, while just 23% of Millennials take the same action. The surprising results suggest that while avoiding the flu is paramount for consumers, taking action to prevent contracting the virus is less likely.

Opportunity — Applying AI-powered predictive platform to The Weather Channel app can provide personalized information beyond. It will be able to glean the user’s interest and pull out predicive datas of what they would like to see most during the day; encourgaing users to be more conscious of health-type situations and to take precautionary actions.

1. Provides localized information and alerts.

2. Encourages users to plan for convergence of flu season; helping them make better decisions.

3. Real time optimized forecast; helps users understand whether there’s heightened flu risk in their area.

My roles and responsibilities

I worked closely with the motion team and the Design Director to define and animate the microinteractions that defines what a "Watson Moment" is. During our collaboration, I was tasked to create visual explorations, prototyping and animating all the microinteractions present in the designs, and documenting/maintaining each decision within IBM Watson's experience guides.

Design system

Watson Moments are highlighted Watson features that appear in product as cards, modals, drawers or highlighted content. By design, they are distinct and dynamic to attract users’ attention, while also being fully integrated and functional additions to UI. It is an extensive design system to put AI to work at scale.

As part of a Watson services, Flu Insights with Watson relies on Watson Moments as an extensive design system. Specifically, Flu Insights with Watson is part of Watson Insights, one of the three types of Watson Moments. Watson Insights is moments that are proactive. They mine data from a wide range of sources, learning from the past to predict the future. Through tailored alerts and recommendations to all kinds of environments from the personal to the professional, they help build better understanding and inform intelligent decisions. Each Watson Insight is comprised of: the signal, to attract the user’s attention; the insight, recommendation or alert; the action, to encourage next steps.

Anatomy of Watson Insights

Watson presence

A — The intro presence is used the first time the Watson logo and title appear.

B— The loop presence is used to indicate that Watson is working behind the scenes, gathering and processing evidence.

UX pattern

Card with and without evidence — The basic Watson card consists of the Watson logo, title, a recommendation, and a call to action. Tapping on the card opens an overlay, displaying a deeper level of evidence and information.

Card with and without evidence — In some cases, evidence needs to be shown up front as part of the card. Tapping on the card opens an overlay, displaying a deeper level of evidence and information.

Card with extra layers of information — If there are two layers of information, an expanded panel can be used within the overlay. ‘See more’ expands the card to show another layer of information. The ‘Call to action’ button opens an overlay with the complete story.

Onboarding — Users can be presented with a full-screen on-boarding first, building brand recognition. Then if there is more information to convey, on-boarding can dive deeper with multiple steps.

Onboarding — Users can see content first, then access the full-screen on-boarding by clicking the question mark. Clicking the question mark brings the user to the full-screen on-boarding.

Components

2x grid system — It’s fundamental to everything we design. The 2x Grid is the geometric foundation of all the visual elements of IBM Design, from typography to columns, boxes, icons, and illustrations. It provides structure and guidance for all creative decision-making.

Buttons — Watson Moments uses a range of specially-designed buttons to perform different functions. Whether they’re text-based or graphic, they’re always clickable.

Radial graphs — Watson Moments uses data visualization to bring information to life. The data can be presented in a number of ways, but there are always consistent themes, such as color, line weight, and typography.

Bar charts — Watson Moments uses data visualization to bring information to life. The data can be presented in a number of ways, but there are always consistent themes, such as color, line weight, and typography.

Color palette— The Watson Moments color palette is a simplified version of our brand colors. They’re chosen for their luminous quality in the digital world.

Reflections

This was a project that really challenged my craft as I was expected define each Watson Moments microinteractions in a systemic manner, and also to create high level, advanced animations that rivaled our in house motion team to present to the client. But, I learned a lot and found out that I was actually able to do more than what I thought I could.

It was a new experience to design with the purpose of integrating AI with the overall consumer experiencre, and through this I was able to learn more about microinteractions and how it could used to elevate user experience.

Future plans — After the successful launch of Flu insights with Watson, key learnings has been been applied to how data could be used to personalize content for customers during allergy season.

PR — Randi Stipes, CMO of the IBM-owned Weather Company, unveiled the new AI-powered feature within The Weather Channel app called Flu Insights With Watson.