For one of my modules in third year, Citizen Media, we had to use new media to promote good citizenship. As I began this module in January I was very focused on the 2015 general election, therefore I wanted to design a mobile phone app to engage younger adults with politics. After many questionnaires, surveys and focus groups I found many 18-25 year olds were not engaging with politics. After asking hundreds of people I began my designs.
The first image above on the far left shows the loading screen as Politapp begins loading opening and getting ready for use. The colours along the bottom depict the political parties from far left to far right wing, Green, SNP, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Conservative, UKIP and other for smaller parties. Obviously this app would update and change when smaller parties win seats, and parties would be removed if they lost too many seats, always updating to ensure younger people’s knowledge remains updated. I have made the app quite colourful as I have looked at many websites and mobile phone apps that are quite plain and not very enticing for a young person. By having non-enticing colours and designs many younger people feel that the website/app is not for them as it can look quite dated. However by creating a colour and modern app it should appeal to younger people rather than older.
Secondly I have made the app very easy to navigate, if I were to create an app with high functionality it could deter possible users. By having simple functionality it should encourage people to download, rather than discouraging users.
Once the app has loaded it will pop up with a screen asking the user to click either “take a quiz”, “basic party policies” or “your constituency candidates”, all depending on what the user wants to inform themselves about. By keep everything simple, younger users who click on the app should easily be able to navigate them around the app. Hopefully giving younger people the choice in what they want to know will help them to decide how they want to inform themselves. Users can either select they want the questions at random, or they can choose which questions they want to answer.
The quiz begins with easy to read and understand questions to not deter any younger people from understanding and deciding to delete the app. The user can slide the slider up 10 levels, from “YES” to “NO” depending on how for or against a policy they are. Underneath the slider is information about the policy, this not only teaches the younger user but it also gives the user an insight and information alongside the questions. If a user is interested in a question, for example the image shows a question about the minimum wage, then the user can read the information below. This will help to inform them of the question asked and it also explains reasons for and against the policy. The following page will show the questions result. On most websites and mobile phone apps that I tested in research, they kept the answer until the end; it was hard to understand which policies you had actually agreed to. By having an answers result page straight after the question it allows the user to fully understand the policy, to be informed and to comprehend which parties are for or against that matter. In the image it shows the following page, displaying a red background, this depicts parties are against the users choice. The image displays SNP, Labour and the Green party with their policy to increase the minimum wage. As the user in the example selected “no” they did not want the minimum wage to increase, the results page shows Labour “want to increase minimum wage to £8ph by 2016”, SNP “want to increase minimum wage to £8.70ph by 2020”, and Green “want to increase minimum wage to £10ph by 2020”. As the image shows these facts, alongside the red background, it should amaze/shock the user and would hopefully turn them to more research or wanting to vote because they were so against a policy.
In the quiz will be around 2/3 questions about each issue ie. welfare, education and housing, to ensure the user receives and accurate representation. The image shows the results once the quiz is over, in the example the user share the most views with Labour. The app than shows the user the top views that you share, if the user is able to see how many views they actually share with a party they may be more inclined to vote. Once the user has finished reading the top views they share, at the bottom is a button to take them to the party that opposes the most of their views. In the example it is UKIP, the app then shows the user the top views that they are against, if they have not been motivated to vote from the first page then hopefully this would encourage the user into reading more information, talking to a friend or actually voting. The quiz informs the reader about different party views, it also shows the user which party aligns with their views the most and which party opposes most of their views. This provides greater insight for the user.
When entering the quiz, the user can either decide to receive the questions at random, or they can select a question. By allowing this, users can decide what they want to know their selves. The image shows how you can choose from “random questions” or by “issues”, once again giving the user full control of how they want to perceive in the information. By clicking “random questions” the user can select exactly the question they want, or if they want to be informed on a specific issue they can also choose that.
Another aspect of my phone app is give the user an insight into their own candidates. The user can either enter their constituency name, if they do not know what it is they can also enter the first part of their postcode. Below this, the information box says “to find your constituency click here…” and the user can click the link to bbc.co.uk to find their own constituency if they do not want to enter their post code. Below this it also tells the user “NB: no data is being collected”, and no information is being collected or sold. The app is completely confidential and will remain private. After entering the first part of the users post code “GL5”, the page has loaded to “Stroud Constituency” where the user can view who their current MP is. For example the MP of Stroud is “Neil Carmichael”, it says how long the person has been MP for and what party. The user can also select “click here for more info” if they want an even greater insight into their constituency.
On the front page of the app the user can select “basic party policies”, if a user has very basic or no knowledge then they can select a party, read information about the party leader and their top policies. If a younger person reads this information, then their friends or family bring up a conversation they can engage and offer the knowledge they know, gained from the app. By informing youth about party basics, when party policies are brought up elsewhere then they feel like they can understand and this will allow them to improve their political knowledge.
Lastly is the opportunity for the user to understand policies or issues from either their geographical location or from their age. The user can either enter their date of birth and then the page will load to party policies that might regard their age, ie. “guaranteed jobs for under-25s who are unemployed for over a year” when the age is selected at 21. The user can scroll and read through different party policies. Or the user can enter the first part of their postcode to reveal their locational issues. For example the image shows local issues for “Stroud Constituency” that might concern the user, ie. Stroud Labour leader wants to “provide free bus transport for those up to the age of 19 to give mobility to those who need it”. By allowing an insight into the local party policies the younger person may feel more involved in their community.
