Dara: A Chatbot to Help Indian Artists and Designers Discover International Opportunities

Many designers and artists in India, because of limited domestic patronage, are interested in international opportunities. However, they experience difficulties in discovering such opportunities. Finding relevant grants, funds, residencies, jobs, and collaborators takes significant time and effort. Typically, this is best done via a human matchmaker - someone who knows of opportunities and makes introductions. However, this person might be limited by their own social circles and knowledge. The few websites available are usually intimidating and not personalized. Our vision is to design and develop Dara, a conversational chatbot that asks a series of questions to its users and is able to suggest relevant opportunities. As a first step we built a Wizard-of-Oz prototype and interviewed 9 users about their experience. We then designed the personality, conversation flow and referral nomination system for our next-level prototype. We conducted a preliminary evaluation with 14 users in Bangalore, India. We discuss the implications for design of chatbots targeted at the creative community in the developing world.