Votum - A Look Behind the Scenes

After months of research and an interactive user testing experience with different young adults and teens, I discovered that teens and young adults generally feel confused, unconfident, and uneducated when it comes to discussing Canadian political topics. This is a huge issue considering that the youngest cohort of voters in Canada (ages 18-25) are the largest group of voters, and could have the biggest impact on the outcome of all elections.

The process behind the design and creation of this app prototype was 8 months in the making. It started off with intense research in January 2020, which led to my thesis paper that talks about the issue with young adults in Canada not getting the proper education in Political Science and Civics courses. This led to months of user research, interactive user testing, planning through design thinking, and branding to create a fun solution to this serious problem.

My research guided me to include the following four aspects to create an engaging, effective app targeted toward teens and young adults:

🕹 GAMIFICATION
Using the aspects of gamification to make the app popular among teens but doing so in a way that isn’t harmful.

🥰 COMPREHENSIVENESS
Committing to using words, concepts, and navigation that teens will understand and will feel comfortable using.

🎨 INTERACTIVE DESIGN
Create intriguing designs that use current UI trends through style. Using Interactive elements to keep teens engaged.

👯‍♂️ PEER INTERACTION
Allow for easy interaction with peers through competitive gaming, connection and notifications.

The Votum App is a prototype designed for my Graphic Design Thesis in 2020. To learn more about this project, check out my website at https://kyliebradshaw.com/graphic-design-thesis