Problems in Politics

Interest: Political justice

“In the age of technology there is constant access to vast amounts of information. The basket overflows; people get overwhelmed; the eye of the storm is not so much what goes on in the world, it is the confusion of how to think, feel, digest, and react to what goes on.”

― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

The Problem:

How can I create a one-stop resource for new voters to find truthful, relevant information on elections?

The Solution:

PoliTeach: Politeach is A one-stop platform with a built-in Artificial Intelligence fact-checker that gathers information from real sources in real-time. This will ensure that the user can do extensive research on political candidates. First-time voters can get information on how to register and when/where to vote in their area. It will also provide each candidate and what they’re all about regarding what party they belong to and what important topics they discuss.

I will break this down into three stages. In this three-stage installment, I will research the market to validate whether my product meets those needs and is the right time to develop it. This will entail a full pest analysis and competition landscape. Then, in the second stage, I will talk to potential users to confirm my product fit. Finally, I will conclude my third stage with user stories and wireframes.

Stage One: Research

PEST Analysis:

In product development, it is common to use a tool called pest analysis. This stands for (Political, Environmental, social, and technological) and helps developers research the market to ensure their product can be a good fit. I will also implement a competitor landscape tool to confirm the potential of my product further.

Political: In the political market, voter suppression is a huge issue in many states across the US. Regulations create unnecessary barriers for voter registration and have made the process confusing and a lot of work. As a result, millions of eligible voters don’t participate in the elections each year. Other suppression tools include ex-offender and discriminatory disenfranchisement laws, and rejected ballots. I believe there are so many rejected ballots due to a lack of education on the voting process. The political domain seems to have a significant market when technology can become a solution for the political injustice that has suppressed eligible voters’ rights.

Below is attached the reasonings that California rejected ballots.

Credit to California for providing this graphic

Economical: One of the main issues within this domain is voter suppression. This is why it’s imperative that my app is free so that anyone has access to this information regardless of economic status.

Social: As Americans, we are taught the importance of voting. It’s our civil duty; however, that’s the extent of education we get about voting in school. Besides the high school government class, we don’t learn much about the government and barely discuss the voting process. I believe my product can induce voter turnout by simply educating potential on the process and how to exercise their voting rights.

Technological: With Recent elections, we have seen a shift in how election campaigns are run. Now, campaigns are mostly run online through social media, and each candidate makes a trip to each state to give an in-person rally. These campaigns that are getting run can confuse, especially if fake ones are being put out. In the 2016 election, there was a conspiracy that Russia had hacked the election and spread false information via Facebook. This has caused a lack of trust between the government and its people. As a result, it causes people not to vote because they think it’s rigged anyway. My product will help build back that bridge to help voters trust this process again.

With the PEST analysis complete, I will look to my competitors to confirm my product’s fit in this market.

Competitor Analysis: There are many competitors within the political landscape, and I chose a few to put into a competitor landscape graph to compare these different resources. Many of them have done a great job in voter education. Still, they haven’t necessarily solved how to phish through irrelevant information. ACLU is one of the most prominent organizations in helping spread voter rights to schools. But with schools being closed, it’s hard to get that word out there. My research aims to find the right spot in the market to validate that poliTeach (name of the app) is the right fit. I knew that if my product couldn’t stand in with other competitors, it isn’t worth moving forward.

The complexity of website vs. useful information for voters

Stage Two: User Testing

In this stage, I can start to put my solution to the test by conducting user interviews. As a developer, I always thought that if I came up with a good enough product, people would gravitate towards it even if there wasn’t a specific market. I would ask my surrounding friends what they thought about the ideas, and they always said they were good ones. But as I got older, I realized that it wasn’t an effective way to create products. I started getting invited to partake in different user interviews. When I got there, I was never asked about the product itself. I didn’t think anything of it until I took this class. Suppose I want to test the validation of my product. In that case, I need to understand my users’ experience and build a product based on an actual need versus what I think would be cool.

Questions:

• Are you registered to vote?
• Do you vote in person or by mail? Why?
• What is your level of knowledge about branches of government?
• Do you vote in midterm elections of primary only?
• Can you tell me about your process? Do you vote with friends or by yourself?
• Do you know the missions behind the parties you’re affiliated with?
• Do you feel like your values align perfectly with your affiliated party?
• How important would you say are the midterm elections? Why?

Responses:

I was able to conduct around 5 informative interviews with people across the ages from 18 to 36. The interviews took approximately 15 minutes each depending on their answers. There were more or fewer questions than the ones stated above. Some of the significant key points were that:

• People only vote in the primaries because they feel that is more important. They aren’t aware of what the midterms are actually for.
• Some people felt like they’re affiliated parties don’t align with their values. Still, one interviewee stated that in the elections, they must “choose the lesser of the two evils.”
• People vote by themselves to not be influenced by others but find it hard to get factual information on every candidate.
• People feel discouraged from voting for the party that aligns with their values because they aren’t broadcasted often. Hence, they feel like there’s no chance of them winning.
• Some feel like voting for a party outside of the two main parties is a wasted vote.
• Some know where to find out the parties’ missions online but don’t feel inclined to research them. They understand that both parties aren’t perfect, so they settle for whoever they think would listen to the people more.

Interview Response:

“My name is Audrey, and I’m a Political Science Major at UC San Diego. I find it frustrating that more people don’t vote during the midterm elections because that’s just as if not more important than primaries. The midterms directly affect your local government and those who make policies. Many people don’t know that and that the president has complete control over everything, and that’s not the case. If we want real change, we need to up our voting during midterms.”

Can my app satisfy the market?

After hearing the feedback from these users, I definitely believe my app has a market to satisfy. These interviews did shift my original idea in a different direction, but my problem domain remains and is validated! My goal is to help users understand their impact on every election, including midterms, and how we can start to make significant changes in the political realm!

User Stories:

Now that I have a sense of what the market needs, it’s time to describe what my solution actually is. In product development, these are known as user stories. This allows anyone to get a sense of how to use the product and what it does. Note: The Stories below are just examples to explain further how my product works.

User Story: Newly Registered voter

AJ just registered to vote in his state with the help of his parents. He doesn’t know much about politics other than what his parents share with him. He decides to try and look up the candidates for this year’s primary. He reads the initiative behind each party but finds that his values don’t really align with either of them. He remembered in his US history class that there are also independent parties that citizens can vote for. He continues his search online for information about these parties and what their values are. He stumbles upon an ad for an app called poliTeach. He logs in with his email in the app and answers some user info like state and age. He is then prompted to answer a survey that will match him with the party that most align with his values. After he gets his results, he can find more information about that specific party and how many people around his area got that same match! He feels confident in this upcoming election about who to vote for. As it gets closer to elections, he receives a reminder and more information about the election process and where his polls are. He’s ready to vote!

User Story: Fed Up Voter

Joshua has been an active voter for at least 3 primary elections now. In the current times, he has become more fed up with the state of the government. After a conversation with his friend, he realized that he’s always been influenced to vote a certain way. He decided to do some research to see what the parties’ mission was and found out he’s been living a lie his whole life. At this point, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to vote in the upcoming election because he didn’t know who to trust anymore. After talking to one of his closest friends who had majored in political science, he told him about an app Politeach. He explained that all the news and updates on candidates are generated through AI, so it’s trustworthy. After he logged in and took the survey, he was matched with a party he didn’t know existed! After doing extensive research on the results he got from the app, he set a reminder for election day to make sure his vote is accounted for. He wants real change and even shares the app on his social media. He hopes to encourage everyone to really ask themselves if their party affiliation aligns with their personal values. He’s gained his motivation to vote again!

WireFrame:

Wireframing helps map out the product design and how it’s supposed to flow. This helps me visualize how to make this an efficient and comfortable system for the user.

Next Steps

Once I have confirmed the market for my app, it is time to go into development. After sketching out the basic design for my app, I can better understand where to start implementing these designs and how the app's flow should go. From here, I can build my app and one day publish it to the market.