My Vote Matters
User Research
Empowering voters to make informed decisions in their local elections.
Overview
Goal
Increase voter turnout in local elections
My Role
Senior UX Researcher at GovTech startup
Develop and execute a full research plan
Design an initial MVP
Timeline
6 months
Problem
Only 15% of registered voters turnout for local elections.
85,000 varied local government structures and election cycles in the US.
News deserts impact access to local journalism for 70 million Americans.
Large gaps in available information regarding local elections, candidates, and ballot measures.
Solution
One-stop mobile-first site for information about local government and elections. Voters can:
View and markup a full ballot before heading to their polling location
Find information about candidates and ballot measures
Learn how their local government functions
Be notified of upcoming election dates and deadlines
Process
Interviews with voters, synthesis of insights through affinity mapping, defining user types, journey mapping, conducting competitive analysis, creating user flows and wireframes, and prototyping.
RESEARCH PROCESS
Interviews with voters, synthesis of insights through affinity mapping, defining user types, journey mapping, competitive analysis
Sample Ballot
Voters can view all races and measures that will appear on their ballot for the upcoming election. They can mark and save the ballot to bring to the polls for a fast and easy voting experience.
Voter Guide
Find detailed information on all candidates, including their platform, endorsements, and external links to their websites, social media, and contact info. Ballot measures contain the full text, along with explainers for what a yes or no vote means in plain language.
Local Gov’t 101
Residents can learn how their local government is structured along with the roles and responsibilities of various elected officials.
Themes from interviews
Finding #1
Voters have a strong desire to make informed choices.
Finding #2
Individual voters use a variety of sources to learn about candidates for local elections. They have concerns about the trustworthiness of the limited number of available sources.
Key Finding #3
Voters don’t have a clear understanding of local politics, even among those who are knowledgeable on the state and federal levels.
This finding led me to advocate for the inclusion of a civics education component that would be tailored to the individual voter’s location. There, they would be able to learn about the structure, role, and function of their own local government. With access to this knowledge, voters feel they can fulfill their responsibility to make informed choices on their ballot each election.
Target Users
Eager Learners will be the early adopters of My Vote Matters as they feel a strong duty to exercise their right to vote, but face barriers in gathering the information they need to feel confident in their voting decisions.
People with little knowledge of local elections and a low desire to vote exhibited an increase desire to vote when information about their local government became more easily accessible to them. Their low desire to vote is closely tied to feelings of insecurity about their lack of knowledge about politics.
User Journey Map
Competitive Analysis
None of the competitors reliably provide local election information. They also focus on either candidates or ballot measures, usually on the state and federal levels. Those that do include both candidate and ballot measures, or include information on local elections, tend to do so inconsistently because they rely on volunteers to compile the information.
My Vote Matters can stand out by providing full ballot information for all elections, integrating educational components about the responsibilities of each elected position, and including ballot measure explainers in easily understandable language.
