About the project

If we provide voters with an easy way to learn about local politicians and explore how their views align with those of the parties, they will participate in public decision-making and thus influence democratic change.

The goal of this project was to create a system that improves the quantity and quality of citizen participation in public decision-making. This case study is a part of the curriculum at the University of Waterloo and a submission to the 2018-2019 RSA Design Awards.

Who? What? 🤔

There is a profound disconnect between Generation Z voters and politicians, resulting in a dismissal of voter participation. This growing gap leads to decisions being made without the voice of younger people to improve current and future ways of living.

How might we bridge the communication gap between politicians and Generation Z voters to encourage participation in democratic decision-making?

Desk Research
Interviews
Survey

Compared to other age groups, Gen Z voters have shown the most decline in the average voter turnout in Canada in the past three years of the Federal and Municipal Elections.

As our desk research inferred that there is a decline in voter participation amongst the ages 18-24, we set out to understand the problem scope from both parties. We conducted 6 semi-formal interviews with local politicians in Kitchener, Waterloo ON, 5 in-person interviews with students and created an online survey that got 14 respondents.

To study contextually and meet local politicians, we attended an on-campus (Laurier University) political event that was designed to facilitate discussions between students and candidates for the upcoming Municipal Elections. The intention was to observe how many students would attend the event and interact with the parties. Much to our belief, we were amongst the only few students who did attend, confirming that there is a communication barrier between politicians and Generation Z voters.

Key Findings

Politicians are eager to connect with the younger generation but feel intimidated to approach this group. Some youth are engaged, those that aren’t are largely just disinterested in politics.

• Engagement can be gained through in-person events, social media and news articles, but long-term engagement is achieved by appealing to the voter's beliefs and values

• Causes of voter apathy include: (1) disinterest in politics, (2) lack of knowledge (campaign issues, parties positions), (3) disillusionment, (4) safe seating, (5) their vote would not make a difference

• The disinterest in political topic largely stems from what the individual sees relevant to them, according to what their friends and people they follow share

• Voters have a voice and an opinion on political matters, but some don’t know how their values align with the parties, who to talk to or whether they would even be heard 

• Campaigning programs, social media and news articles are effective tools to inform what each party and candidates stand for. They do not entirely create engagement for all eligible voters

Sketching
Prototyping

At this point, we brainstormed ideas that could potentially be a solution to increase engagement from both parties. I began by looking at the event that we originally attended, how it was marketed, how many people came, the engagement level and what was missing? 

Around the same time of this assignment, there was a pop-up event taking place in Toronto called The Happy Place, which was increasingly trended on social media. From all the hype that it was gaining from the younger generation, we began to speculate the driven causes for the success of this event, and compare our findings with similar pop-ups around the city of Toronto. We learned that these pop-ups had three things in common:

• Element of surprise 

• Ideology of FOMO

• Instagram

From this learning, we came up with the Political Party, an event service dedicated to building fun and engaging events for Gen Z to attend and learn more about the politicians in their city. (Spoiler Alert: We pivoted)

Concept Validation

Politicians
Students

To test the validity of our first iteration, we reached out to the local politicians we connected with during the on-campus event at Laurier to conduct a moderated user testing session.

Along with two group members, I interviewed Jen Vasic, Waterloo’s Ward 5 Councillor, who gave us insightful feedback on our first iteration, and we even got a shoutout on her twitter!

”This is a neat idea! Sometimes I don’t know if my campaign spending is worth it… using this tool would give me assurance” - Jen Vasic (Waterloo’s Ward 5 Councillor)

“I would have liked to also see testimonials or pictures of past events” - Jen Vasic (Waterloo’s Ward 5 Councillor)

“We know students aren’t voting. We want involvement, but we (adults) don’t know how to engage youth.” - Jen Vasic (Waterloo’s Ward 5 Councillor)

“I want to tell youth to be gentle with adults who don’t know how to ‘behave’ around youth. We’re scared to approach them because we’re not as cool as them. There is a gap.” - Jen Vasic (Waterloo’s Ward 5 Councillor)

Through her tweet, more politicians formally reached out to her and were interested in meeting with us! This was great news for us, proving that there was a real need for a solution like Political Party in the community. 

Design Evaluation

After more rounds of interviews with candidates and Gen Z voters, we realized that our existing solution was a unicorn:

• Lacked scalability

• High in cost to implement

• Hindered the underlying message of stimulating democratic conversations - the youth were more interested in the actual activities, not about speaking with politicians

Learning from this information and going back to the drawing boards, we brainstormed ways to shift the concept of fun and open communication between young citizens and politicians in a digital platform. 

Demo

Scenario No. 1
Jess is trying to learn more about the politicians in her city since she wants to participate in the upcoming municipal election. Her goals are:

• Find out which politicians best align with her personal values and interests

• Learn about the candidates and their story, past accomplishments, and future goals

Scenario 2

Jess wants to stay involved in the local political processes in her city. Her goals are:

• See what the current politicians in her city are up to, and if they upheld their promises

• Share her experiences as a citizen with her councillor, or mayor

• Build a stronger relationship with her city’s leaders and residents, voicing concerns, connecting with the community and making impactful changes in her city

Community Involvement

This project was an eye-opening experience that made realize how much of a voice I carry in political discussions. I was able to step out of my personal knowledge and gain unfiltered access about an important issue in today’s world, all while identifying the need for a digital tool that connects local politicians with eligible voters. While, this project did not qualify as a winner in the 2018/2019 RSA Competition, the process of translating what I learned into my designs and meeting with all the local politicians who showed excitement and interest in this project was a winning experience on its own.

Having more time, I would have worked on responsive designing and translating the flow into a mobile application. Running a test in other parts of local regions would also been the next steps into validating the success of Political Party.

© 2023 Harkeran Bariana