The Local is an app and website that educates the public about local politics. Users can find out information about who their elected officials are and information on issues that are important to them.

Project Overview

The problem:
Local politics directly impacts everyone’s lives, however, many people don’t know who their local elected officials are and what legislation ibeing passed on the local and state level.

The goal:
To educate the public on local issues and local elected officials. With this information, people will make more informed decisions when voting and can better advocate for causes that are important to them.

Project duration:
January 2023-March 2023

My role:
UX Designer of the app and responsive web design.

Responsibilities:

User research, paper and digital wireframes, low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototype.

Understanding the User

User research and competitive audit

I conducted a series of interviews to understand users’ needs and what gaps there are in accessing information about local politics. A main issue that came up was that there are no resources that provide a centralized place to get information on who the elected officials are, where they stand on different positions, and information about local issues. I then conducted a competitive audit to understand what the gaps and opportunities were.

Ideation

I did a quick ideation exercise to address gaps that I discovered during the competitive audit. My focus was to create an effective way for users to find who their elected officials and view information on various issue areas.

Starting the Design

Digital Wireframes

After ideating and creating paper wireframes, I created digital wireframes for this app. These designs focused on helping users find the elected officials in their district and guiding users to pages that spoke about specific issues.

Low-Fidelity Prototype

In order to prepare for a usability study, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The user flow was focused on users looking up their local elected officials based on their address.

View the low-fidelity prototype

Usability Study

Study type: Moderated usability study

Location: Long Island, NY

Participants: 5 participants

Length: 30 minutes

These were the main findings from the usability study:

Issue Area Page:

It’s confusing to include submenu items for issue areas. There should be a landing page with this information instead.

Bookmarks:

It is frustrating to search for the same thing every time. There should be a way to save search results.

Footer menu:

There should be a menu on the bottom of the app to navigate to the most important pages of the app.

Refining the Design

Mockups

Based on the insights of the usability study, I applied changes to my mockup. This included adding a footer menu with icons to the most important pages.

Another change I added, was the ability to bookmark search results and pages. Users can view those pages by clicking on their profile.

High-Fidelity Prototype

The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype. I incorporated observations from my usability study, including the ability to bookmark pages.

View the high-fidelity prototype

Accessibility considerations

High contrast of text, with black text on a white background or white text on a dark background.
Icons are in the footer menu for those whose first language is not English.

Responsive Design

Sitemap

When I completed the app, I worked on the responsive website. I created a sitemap to create a cohesive experience between devices.

Responsive Designs

I created designs for mobile, tablet, and desktop, focusing on how the user would use the website on each device.

View the high-fidelity mobile prototype

View the high-fidelity tablet prototype

View the high-fidelity desktop prototype

Going Forward

Takeaways

Impact: Users responded positively and found that this app/website helped inform them about local politics. One user stated, “I had no idea who my elected officials were until now!”
What I learned: I learned that designing with users in mind makes a big difference. Users were easily able to navigate to the information they needed and were satisfied with the product.

Next Steps

Survey a select group of users 6 months after the app download to see if they became more engaged in local politics.
Broaden the reach of the app so it covers additional regions.
Look at app reviews for recurring issues and makes updates and adjustments.

Contact

Thank you for reviewing my work! I can be reached by email at candicejohnsonux@gmail.com.