MOBILE EDUCATIONAL APP
POLLY
THE PROJECT
A civics knowledge app aimed at high-schoolers in the classroom environment that will familiarize potential voters with basic terminology and concepts, as well as with the issues that matter most to them.
Users will become more empowered citizens, inclusive in the political conversation rather than feeling shut out from it.
MY ROLE
This was my MFA thesis at SVA for Interaction Design and it was a solo endeavor.
I conducted primary and secondary research, user interviews and user testing. I also developed content strategy, UX/UI ideations, prototypes, brand identity and a final thesis presentation of my concept.
PROBLEM
FUTURE TENSE
Since the 2016 elections, the state of political discord in the United States has reached a fever pitch. Voter turnout, especially amongst young eligible citizens, is at a two decade low.
Concurrently, our nation is experiencing a crisis in civic education. Can we expect anything other than low voter turnout when our young citizens are not being taught the basic fundamentals about their roles as citizens?
These two problems are intertwined.
CHALLENGE
REVERSE THE COURSE
I focused on this central motif:
"How might we increase civic literacy amongst the next generation of voters in America?"
Along the way I established some primary objectives:
INSIGHTS
ROAD TO NOWHERE
The typical high school student has a semester of civics, if they are lucky. A common complaint I heard from students was that civics curriculums are often centered around history, not current events or topical issues that feel impactful and relevant to them.
With low civic literacy upon graduation, they are often inundated with numerous digital products promising to make registering to vote or voting in general easy. Feeling unequipped with WHY voting matters through general literacy, the HOW becomes a moot point.
"I feel like I don’t know anything about politics ever. I’m currently taking current events in high school and the teacher says stuff we don’t know anything about, but she makes it seem like we should."
-Nick, 17 (High School Junior)
THE SOLUTION
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
There are three main facets working in conjunction to drive the POLLY user experience. Crucial to POLLY is engaging students via familiar language and habits as well as making learning fun and communal.
"Politics is purposely designed to be confusing."
-Ruby Shamir (political author)
PRODUCT
DASHBOARD
Upon entering the app, the student will be greeted with a DAILY POLLYTICS module, which will be the first unlocked section the student can access.
Upon finishing a short DAILY POLLYTICS module, a PRESSING ISSUES module will become unlocked.
All learning content has potential to allow the student to LEARN + EARN points, encouraging use.
TALLY will keep track of the progress the class of students are making towards their collective point goal.
INSIGHT
STAY TOPICAL
User interviews reflected a general frustration towards irrelevant noise in politics. User testing sessions involving exercises such as card sorting helped hone down potential topics that could actually prove useful and be covered in the DAILY POLLYTICS modules.
FACET #1
DAILY POLLYTICS
The first module the user accesses can be likened to a ‘Term of the Day’, in which POLLY will filter out the noise and provide only relevant topics to explore in three digestible sections. We utilize adaptive learning here.
The Lowdown - Short fact cards centering around one topic that the student can learn, swipe through and bookmark.
Learning will help the student earn points throughout POLLY.
Quiz Time - Short quizzes in a familiar format that cover previous learnings from ‘The Lowdown’.
So..In a Nutshell - A single card reiterating the info learned from ‘The Lowdown’ and ‘Quiz Time’ that can be saved for later reference.
Finishing up a level unlocks an Issue Module.
INSIGHT
TAKE IT PERSONAL
"We never speak about anything current. Everything is just history."
Speaking with potential users, it became apparent that talking about issues that they care about is a way to connect with young voters.
A major component of POLLY would need to be issue-based so that the content felt relevant and spoke to the user’s real-life concerns.
Educators stressed how important it is to have reputable sources for linked articles.
FACET #2
PRESSING ISSUES
POLLY aims to establish a connection between politics and the essential issues that will engage the student. Issue modules are unlocked upon completion of a Daily Pollytics module.
News Flash Card - Short recent news synopsis to open up discussion for class.
Dig Deeper - Gain extra points by reading the actual article that the synopsis is sourced from.
Opinion Time - POLLY will intermittently poll users to get their take on an issue, allowing them to compare with other POLLY users.
INSIGHT
COMMUNAL EFFORT
"If someone falls behind, we can work as a class to encourage them to get back up."
-Rosa, 17 (High School Senior)
Rather than focus on individual achievements, in the spirit of a healthy democracy (as well as user testing), POLLY would ultimately be more rewarding if the users could work collectively towards a common goal.
FACET #3
LEARN & EARN
Encourage and incentivize students to use POLLY on a regular basis in order to build a strong foundation of civics knowledge.
Points earned throughout the app will be tallied up in a leaderboard and added to a class collective goal that, once achieved, will activate a real dollar amount such as $500 from a partner foundation that supports civic tech.
The students get their first taste of democracy by voting on how the reward money can help their community.
"This is like Buzzfeed mixed with BrainPop! I love both those things!"
-Adelaide, 17 (High School Senior)
PROCESS
SITE MAP
Developing a map of the features for an educational quiz app required constant user testing and paper prototypes. Eventually a flow was established that helped facilitate the three facets that drive POLLY.
PROCESS
ITERATIVE PROCESSES
Establishing a rhythm to the educational quiz app through many rounds of sketching out flows and building to a final UI through multiple iterations.
PROCESS
USER TESTING
From the onset, I wanted to make sure young students could relate to the language and visual look of POLLY. I kept up a regular testing cadence with these users to gain valuable insight on what was working and what wasn’t.
INSIGHTS
DETERMINING THE AUDIENCE
To begin tackling my problem space, I tried to speak with as many political experts, journalists, authors and teachers as I could. These are some primary takeaways:
I was able to shape a better understanding of the political landscape and eventually decided to focus on my ideal target audience: high school students. These young citizens have tremendous power to shape the future and happen to be of key pre-voting age.
Establishing a network of high school juniors and seniors helped me gain new insights on a regular basis. User interviews and responses such as below helped narrow down my audience and problem space within politics:
What is missing in high school civic education?