OVERVIEW

Background

During June 2020, many younger users on social media rapidly spread posts on political activism and exposure to societal issues. It seemed as though online activism would spark inspiration in a majority of young adults to vote. However, after talking to some of my college peers, they still expressed feelings of uncertainty due to “lack of knowledge” or “being overwhelmed by politics.” In America, less than half of eligible young adults actually cast a vote. My team was passionate about improving the voter experience and increasing voter turnout amongst young, first-time voters.

How might we help users foster a long-term relationship with politics and voting?

Solution

As college students, we noticed that voters in our generation found it challenging to engage in politics in a consistent, healthy, and constructive manner. We created a safe, digital space for users to engage in meaningful, facilitated, and anonymous conversations about a variety of political topics.

BUDDY GENERATOR

Sparking Connections

Finding users who share similar interests
as you.

DASHBOARD

Share experiences with others

The shared dashboard tracks your collective progress with your buddy, increases your investment in each other, and affirms your thoughts in the world of politics.

USER PROFILE

View your growth over time

Reflect on your political journey by viewing milestones, achievements, and past conversations you’ve had with buddies.

CHAT STRUCTURE

Progress in real time 

Track and feel your progress during activities with your buddy.

ACTIVITY DESIGN

Welcome self-expression
without hostility

Have meaningful interactions with unique forms of expression, while avoiding potential online hostility or undesirable interactions.

CHAT MODERATOR

Choose your comfort

Talk about what you’re comfortable talking about. Moderator steps in when you have different opinions or when you want to decline someone’s request to discuss more.

USER RESEARCH

Understanding Our Users

Our first step was to find a specific problem that hindered the voting experience for young adults. Our target audience were individuals between the ages 18-24 because they make up a majority of first-time voters.
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Main Findings

1. Users reported having “feed fatigue” from the overwhelming amount of politically charged content on their newsfeeds.
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2. Many felt uncomfortable sharing views that differed from that of the majority.
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3. Many first-time voters experienced felt that their role and efforts in politics were insignificant.

Taking in these user frustrations and needs, we decided to focus on these 3 themes:

User Personas

In order to guide our future design direction, I crafted personas which reflected common backgrounds and problems our research participants experienced.

EARLY IDEATION + CONCEPT VALIDATION

Brainstorming Ideas

Motivated by the themes found in our data, we developed 3 distinct paper prototypes. As a team, we conducted user testing virtually using Marvel.

Concept Validation Task

We conducted a concept validation task by giving participants a list of commonly appeared words and sentiments from our surveys and asked them to design a solution that would address the list.
Three separate participants created designs that were nearly identical to our "guided reflection" concept, and several others included themes that pointed in that same direction. 
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Motivated by these findings, we leapt head-first into the “guided reflection” prototype.

WIREFRAMES

Testing Our Ideas

We built in the themes found from our research into four main features: the buddy generator, shared dashboard between users, progress on user profile, and role of the moderator.

We conducted weekly user testing on low-fidelity prototypes while refining which features and methods of execution were prioritized by users.

THE FINAL PROTOTYPE

After pivoting a couple times, conducting many more user testing sessions, and increasing the fidelity, here is our final product!

DESIGN SYSTEMS

REFLECTION

What I Learned

1. The design journey is not linear. There were multiple occasions throughout this sprint where we scrapped and transformed ideas regardless of the time we spent on them. Weekly iterative user-testing meant weekly changes were being made in order to uphold intent, meaning, and human-centered methodology.

2. Teamwork is truly synergistic. Before coming onto this project, my teammates and I had design backgrounds that pointed in different directions. All of our efforts melted together to create a product filled with thorough research practices, flavorful visual and interaction design, and intentional content writing. Although my primary role was product design, I depart from this program with experience and knowledge in need-finding, strategizing content, and much more.

3. Visual strain from the computer screen and carpal tunnel are indeed very real!

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