Policy Bytes - An online policy debate platform for Citizen's League
New product development serving policy conversations in a new and innovative way
Methods & Tools: Competitor Audit, Systems Research, Sketching, Wireframing, Design Concept Development, Rapid Prototyping, User Testing, Interactive Prototyping, Client and Stakeholder Interviews and Review
Citizens League is a non-partisan, non-profit origanization that strives to promote common good and democracy in Minnesota.
The organization publishes a quarterly magazine that engages minnesotans in civic dialogue around political and policy issues. Citizen’s league connected with our UX team to expand these policy conversations into an online communication platform. Citizen’s League has some truly inspired ideas about supporting intentional and meaningful conversation about important policy issues.
The Challenge
Create a web application that offers an approachable, objective, and balanced visual presentation of curated debates while meeting specific goals to serve user understanding.
The Goals
Scannable
Preview conversation and content at a glance
Flexible
Support multiple contributor voices
Scalable
Accommodate various levels of size, detail and format
Accountability
Supporting evidence attached directly within conversation
Connected Conversation
Participant responses and rebuttals directly connected to original statement
Balanced and Fair
Promotes policy discussions that are objective, inclusive and free of bias
Discovery
Our team performed competitive audits of current online debate and argumentation forums. It quickly became apparent of the need for an application of this kind. Current models are often two-sided, confusing to navigate, and artificially represent relationships. We began to sketch and create interaction models of the whole system as well as micro interactions within the system. In order for this complex interaction model to perform as intended, it is essential to work seamlessly with the mental model of the user.
Interaction Model Explorations and User Testing
User Testing Session
The team selected a variety of the interaction proposals to test with our target users.
“I want to have the most control possible, that’s a lot of clicks to see whole thing”
“Who is arguing and making these points?”
“This is guiding me too much. ”
Synthesis and Design Considerations:
After our interaction model testing session, the team conducted a collaborative synthesis of our observations. Some key themes emerged that we moved forward with into our next design itereations.
- Navigation and orientation essential to user understanding and experience
- Offer a variety of visibility options to accommodate user interest
- Develop a clear onboarding experience to assist user understanding of the complex interaction model
- Color, hierarchy and other biases affect user perceptions of information
- Information presentation needs clear connection to source voice
Biases and Challenges
There were many biases that surfaced during testing. Color and hierarchy were the main components that affected user perception. These biases could not be eliminated. In an argumentation platform there will always have to be a first. The western model of reading content left to right and top to bottom is unavoidable. With the important goal of fairness and balance in mind, the "Common Ground" feature emerged. Before entering the debate arena, the user is presented with an idea of unity and understanding. Here, an overview of the conditions that all voices agree upon pretenses the user experience of the Policy Bytes platform. There is also a brief summary of topic to be discussed as well as an introduction to all participants and their position/viewpoint. This priming experience allows the user to gather a high level view of the upcoming conversation before entering the full policy discussion platform.
The Solution
The Common Ground
Common Ground section to anchor the user experience prior to examining the debate content.
Scalability and Preview Hovering
Users can hover over main premises to see the back and forth between the debaters.
Argument Tab System
A tab system to show all debaters voices (this model can easily house up to four).
Accountability and Scale
By clicking on a main premise, the back and forth will be anchored and users can explore all pieces of evidence.
A fully interactive version of the Policy Bytes Platform can be found by following this link