Qian - UX designer


BBC My Politics



Concept Project



An app for BBC that will engage users, especially young people to get more involved with politics.




Click to see results

Challenge



Problems and Client's goals



The Problem



BBC competes in a busy marketplace for 24-hour news viewership and mobile app users—especially in election years. But as voters have expressed increasing dissatisfaction with their elected representatives and often feel lost when looking for information regarding policies, the BBC wants to find new ways to get people involved with their government at various levels (e.g. local and national). Their target solution would both better educate voters about upcoming elections and votes but also keep them involved with the business of government on an on going basis.



BBC’s Goals


Better inform and educate voters about political news and upcoming elections. Get voters involved with politics and government on a more regular basis





Discovery



Concept Map | Survey | User Interviews | Persona Creation | Affinity Map | User Journey Map | Competitor Analysis



Concept Map



Help to clarify and research direction towards the research and solutions.




Survey



We designed our survey questions and posted these on varies platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, slack, some politics blogs and university students social platforms, etc., to get appropriate audiences. We received in total 73 responses, from this we got an absorbing summary. That led us to prepare user interview questions which will help us to find out the key points that stop people from getting involved with politics.



I never used to vote because I didn’t feel informed enough.



Sasha, 21 years old





User Interview




We interviewed a total of 10 different users age between 18-40. We gather all our interviews together, and made an affinity map, picking up the essential thoughts of our users towards politics and BBC. After this, we were able to come up key points about what people need to get engaged in politics and the common problems they are having about politics today.




Interviews Key Takeaways



Affinity Map



Personas




Based on all the research we had, we came up with three Personas. We made a primary persona Chloe the focus on the young generation who have the lowest vote rate. We also made a secondary persona Albert, who is a blind person, who has limited accessibility. The third persona Joyce, which represents people who are interested in politics but find it difficult to get local political information.​



“I wish politics was less intimidating.”



Chloe, 22 year old,, Sales Assistant
at H&M





Chloe only became aware of politics in the

last six months during the national debate prompted by the EU Referendum. She was one of the people who applied in the last few hours before the deadline and so didn’t get a vote, which she regretted afterwards. She also didn't vote in the General Election the year before but has signed a few petitions she has seen her friends post on social media about environmental issues.



“Being blind makes getting involved a challenge.”



Alert, 33 years old, Part-time community worker





He would like to search for information freely without restriction, and he felt that he lacked the full picture about the key issues as he had limited access to the digital world mainly because of his blindness.



“Finding out about local politics takes too much time.”



Joyce, 54 years old, Librarian





Joyce wants to find her local MP’s information so that she can send him/her

a letter about her noisy neighbour.



User Journey Map



Base on our primary persona Chloe, we went through her journey of deciding to vote, in which we identified her pain points during the process so that we can improve by focusing on those pain points.



Chloe finds discovering enough information

difficult and boring.



.then she finds assessing different political positions

and parties infuriating and tiring.



.but when she has finally made up her mind it feels great! How can we get Chloe to this point more smoothly?​




Competitor Analysis




Based on the survey results that we had from the user interviews, we were able to focus on what is out there, and what their pros and cons are. We have compared the Guardian, which is the people’s second favourite news site and some local political sites as well as political apps, we found that the current problems are:


Lots of information about policies, politicians, and elections are in fact available online for people, But finding it can be tricky (because it is all over the place) the sheer quantity makes it hard to digest. Political news is separate from normal government business. Petition websites do a good job of engaging people on single issues, but this is not always connected back to day to day government business and representative. Tailoring political content to people’s concerns and locations is unusual and uncommon. ​​



Solution



Based on current issues, we decided to design a mobile app.
Our app “My politics” is to be an addition to BBC’s existing products to be a simple and easy to use app that delivers personalised news and information and encourages users to form an opinion about the things they are reading about.​



All in one place



Events
Integrate content from other sites
Political Dictionary



Keep it simple



Mobile App
Few Short Stories
Time Stamps
Comparison Tool /Quiz



Keep it relevant



Preferred Topics
Location-based content
Suggested articles



Design Process



Feature Prioritisation | User Flow | Site Map | Design Studio | Sketch | Low Fidelity Wireframe
Mid-Fidelity Wireframe | User Testing | High Fidelity Prototype



User Flows




Followed by Chloe’s journey map, we developed the key user flows to outline the main issues our user is having.



Set up preferences



Define political terms



Find out political position



Feature Prioritisation




We did our feature prioritization for our app followed by rules, it helps us focus on what really matters to our user.

The features Must have / Should have / Could have / Won’t Have.





Design Studio



Each team member sketches as many concepts as possible with a limited time box, focusing on one user flow or problem to solve. After this everyone gives a description of their ideas, with their design solutions shown on paper. Often new constraints are introduced, and new opportunities arise. The group will discuss what could be the best design solution for each problem, then in the second round, everyone will sketch design with a distinct improvement in mind.





Initial Sketches - Simple and Visual



After design studio focused on the user flows and feature prioritisation, we sketched our individual designs and combined our designs to come up with our initial wireframe.



Set up preferences



Define political terms



Find out political position



Low Fidelity Wireframes



Then we used Sketch to finalize our low fidelity wireframe, ready for the first user test.


Set up preferences



Define political terms



Find out political position



First user testing



We did first user test after our low fidelity paper prototype, we have few feedbacks from the people who we test:

We need to explain the on-boarding process better

Make features easier to find

Better integrate news and interactive features​



Mid Fidelity Wireframe



Clickable prototype using Marvel



After the first user test, we made changes to improve it and went on to the Mid-Fidelity wireframe and used Marvel to make a clickable prototype for the second test.



Second user testing



With Mid-fidelity clickable prototype, we went to do another user testing, to give user a more real feel of the app, with observation of how user responds to the app, the result was:


To improve icons and labelling
To improve page layouts
To further integrate quiz and news content​



High Fidelity prototype



(clickable prototype using InVision)



After the second user testing, based on the feedback we got, we refined a few new issues identified and used BBC Global Experience Language and key visual design principles as below:
Use BBC iconography + design patterns.
Colour scheme not politically affiliated.
Interaction design oriented to the user.
We created high fidelity wireframe and also used InVision to make a clickable prototype.



Check the prototype in InVision

Result



Have met our persona's goals and clients' goals



Design stages



Initial sketch on the paper



First low fidelity wireframe



Mid fidelity clickable prototype



High fidelity clickable prototype





Simple



“I used to find political news overwhelming... but now I can stay up to date without any trouble.”



Relevant



“I used to find politics inaccessible in many ways.... but now it’s much easier to engage with it all.”



All in One Place



“I used to find it impossible to find marches to take part in.... but now it’s an easy task.”



BBC’s Goals Met



Voters like Chloe are now better informed,Easier for all voters to get as involved as much as they want to




Clickable Prototype Demo



Next Steps



Desktop Version—As part of existing site

Accessibility—High Contrast mode

Quiz —More people you know who have similar views to yours,

such as celebrities.




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