The project ParentCoach started in January 2022 and finished in December 2024.
Presentations
- 12/2/2024, The ParentCoach Project at workshop in Society-Centred AI
- 20-21/1/2025, Poster presentation on the design and initial evaluations of ParentCoach at UCT Digital Health Summit
Media appearances
- 25/3/2022, ParentCoach: Chatbot interativo apoia pais de “primeira viagem”. News at Miúdos e Graúdos in Portuguese: link
Publications
- African Co-Design: Past, Present, and Emerging, 2023 at AfriCHI’23
- A Not So Chatty “Chatbot”: Co-designing to support First-Time Parents in South Africa and Portugal, 2024 at CUI’24. Awarded with Honorable Mention Short Paper
- Understanding How Parents Deal With the Health Advice They Receive: A Qualitative Study and Implications for the Design of Message-based Health Dissemination Systems for Child Health, 2024 at DIS’24
- Engagement of Parents with the Aurora Child Health Chatbot: A Conversation Log Analysis Study, 2025 at International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
- Perspectives of Parents and Healthcare Professionals on Using Chatbots to Support Parents in Child Health: A Qualitative Study, 2025 at AfriCHI’25
Theses
- Diana Campos Liebetrau, Characterising user engagement of parents with the Aurora chatbot, 2024 at University of Cape Town
- Ndinelao Iitumba, Community-centred network management for community wireless networks (CWNs), 2024 at University of Cape Town
- Leina Meoli, ParentCoach: co-designing a chatbot to support first-time parents, 2025 at University of Cape Town
- Sharifa Negesa, Choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA): an empathy digital training tool for healthcare workers in maternity settings, 2025 at University of Cape Town
- Joana Couto, (Work-in-progress) Addressing sensitive topics with participants through co-design, 2026 at University of Porto
- Sarina Till, (Under review) Co-Design Is Not Enough: Lessons Learned and Experiences From Exploring Co-Design Readiness, Co-Creation and Co-Deployment in Technology Design at University of Cape Town
Training
- February - March 2022, AICOS led the course Learning from Users: User Research Methods for Technology Design, in which six researchers from the University of Cape Town and HSRC participated.
- November 2023, the team led the African Co-Design Academy Summer School. During two days, participants had the opportunity to explore co-design approaches and best practices, with a particular emphasis on the African context. We gathered lecturers from different African countries and with diverse experiences in engaging in these methods. Attended by 11 African students.