goVOTE

A 1-week design sprint for social good

Have you ever found yourself wanting to vote but not knowing if you are registered, where you can go to vote, or what you need to bring with you?

Overview

In a 1 week sprint hosted by the GAUXDI program, my team and I proposed a solution to the information gap around voting.

Duration

1 week

Tools

Figma
FigJam

Team STEAM

Stella Hang
Tamar Partamian
Eunsung Kwon
Ava Salazar
Meaghan Savery

The Challenge

Our objective was to provide accurate polling information for voters and to help voters choose a ballot that is in line with their values.

Our goals were to:

Make an app that checked registration status
Check the types of voting available in your area
Provide information about how to get to your polling location
Confirm what you need to bring with you

My Role

My role included brainstorming during the concept stage, assisting during the user interviews and consolidating the data, facilitating design reviews and user testing.

I was part of a design team that proposed a solution to the **information gap** around voting.
Initially we thought we would try to help voters figure out which candidates aligned with their personal views.

The Research

What we learned

As we looked into research- specifically with the ACLU- we learned that there are confusing and limiting laws around voter IDs, cuts to early and mail-in voting, and purges of voting rolls.

We thought, before we can help people learn who their perfect candidates are, they need to know if they are registered to vote, and what they need for the polls.

User Interviews

During the interview portion of the usability test, we asked participants about their biggest pain point from the last time they voted.

This linked back to our original passion idea of helping folks figure out which candidates most represent their interests.

Persona

Our User

Based on our research, we developed a persona that represented the population that we were serving.

Our user is an 18 year old student who will be voting for the first time but is overwhelmed by the amount of misinformation surrounding elections and wants to be more educated heading into the polls.

Design Synthesis

Getting Started

Using our persona and our research, we set off to start the design process.

We sketched out user flows that streamlined the information sought out by voters, and tested those for clarity.

*low fidelity wireframes for the goVOTE app*

Prototype

Presenting goVOTE

After a vigorous week of research, conducting user interviews, and testing our ideas, we created goVOTE, a resource for voters to discover accurate polling informationand to help voters choose a ballot that is in line with their values.