Back

Candidate Connect

Empowering Voters through Candidate Awareness

Project Description

Candidate Connect is a redesign of Elections Canada's Voter Information service. It aims to empower voters, especially youth, by providing accessible candidate information. The platform now offers more candidate details, a streamlined information access process, and a visually appealing design, enhancing the overall user experience.

Responsibilities

- User Research
- User interview
- Usability Testing
- Data Analysis
- Information Architecture
- Prototyping and UI Designing
- Coordinating with Client
- Team Management
- Contributed to each section of this project

Tools

- Figma
- Figjam
- Miro
- Google Forms

Team

Marie, Carol, Heba, Echo and me

Duration

8 months

Problem Statement

Where do Canadian youth get information regarding the electoral process? Why do they use these channels?

Elections Canada faces a trust crisis and rampant misinformation, endangering youth voter turnout. Our research explores how young Canadians (18-34) get election information and why they prefer certain channels. By understanding these preferences, we aim to help Elections Canada use these channels to boost youth civic participation. Our study asks, "How do different communication channels influence varied demographics to vote?" This age group, despite being active on many platforms, consistently shows low voter turnout, making them a critical focus for improving engagement.

Demographics

Young Youth

(18-24)

Adult Youth

(25-34)

Research Approach and Protocol

Mixed methods approach to conduct the research study in the following steps.
Step 1: Literature review - Utilized academic research paper sources to understand the problem space

Step 2: Quantitative Research - Utilized on online survey form to collect data on patterns, attitudes, awareness, and also as a recruitment tool

Step 3: Qualitative approach - Interviewed both youth and subject matter experts to get more depth on the problem space.  

Literature Review

Quantitative Research

Qualitative
Approach

Literature Review

Survey

Semi-structured Interviews

40+

129

20

Sources

Respondents

Participants

Step 1 : Literature Review

As the group dive into the literature, several themes were discovered and the related sub-questions were created like which online media Canadian youth consumes, how do they construct trust on those platforms and so on.

What the Literature Review says

Trust and credibility are important in establishing a positive relationships between individuals and their sources of information
Online platforms are the main avenue for youth to engage politically
On social media platforms, privacy and control are crucial factors for establishing trust and creating a sense of exclusivity within members.

Step 2 : Quantitative Approach

The survey aimed to validate communication channel consumption patterns derived from the literature review, gauge the target audience's level of understanding and awareness of Elections Canada, quantitatively determine their sources of election information, and identify the social media channels they use.

Youth rely mostly on social media for election information

Relation of platform trustworthiness and election news access

Youtube is the most trustworthy platform to get information
Instagram is the most used social media platform to access electoral news

Step 3 : Qualitative Approach

We recruited our interviewees from the survey. In total, 12 participants who had consented to participate were interviewed. During the interviews, we asked them to expand upon their survey responses, in particular, what motivated them to vote, what was their experience voting, any government social media content they follow.
In addition, we conducted interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs)—including political scientists, youth advocates, digital media specialists, and psychologists

Interview Quotes

"Voting procedures may seem straightforward, but deciding whom to vote for can be the real challenge." -  Participant 12
"Live face-to-face interaction (youth and government) provides an invaluable opportunity for a deeper and nuanced understanding of each other's messages." - SME
"Despite my initial disinterest, my friends motivated me to vote in the last election. It reminded me that every vote counts and that together, we can make a difference." - Participant 5

Interview Findings

Youth trust the content creator more than the social media platform.
Friends and family influence in voting.
Voting is easy, but finding voting information is difficult.
Youth prefer bite-sized content in dynamic video format.
Youth prefer face-to-face interaction when it comes to engaging with institutions.

Key Insights

Ongoing, intentional, and consistent engagement with youth can establish trust.
Social media is less about providing information as opposed to building relationships.
Use engaging language that reflects the diversity and interests of youth.
Youth perceive voting and Elections Canada very differently from older adults.

How might we

From our gathered insights, we generated How Might We’s, to rephrase problems into statements  that encourage creative and open-ended thinking. So, as we went to ideation process we asked ourselves.
HMW consistently engage youth to establish trust?
HMW build relationships using social media?
HMW create content that would reflect diversity and interests of youth?
HMW create a middle ground between Elections Canada and youth voting perception?

Ideation

To kickstart our ideation process, we used the method Crazy 8s to come up with many ideas as possible which we then grouped into clusters. From those clusters we came up with one main idea that represented each cluster, making a total of 7 ideas Based on your Election Canada’s stakeholder feedback, we decided to focus on a idea which we felt solve as major pain point of youth that we got from our research, whom to vote is a major concern rather than how to vote.

Sources

Chosen Ideas

Solution

Solution Map

The solutions map represents the bigger picture of our idea, it consists of an EC Social Media Strategy, Candidate Connect Website platform and a Candidate profile input platform.
‍
How it would work is, The youth will engage with a Social Media (SM) ad run by Election Canada as a part of the SM strategy, then the ad would direct them to the Candidate Connect. Which would sits on the current Voter Information Service, and on this platform there will be candidate information provided by the candidates themselves.

The end result would be youth finding real, trustworthy information which adds value in them making informed decision and hence increase their voter turnout.

Proposed Solution : Candidate Connect

A revamp of the Voter Information Service platform on Elections Canada website.
Through the candidate connect platform, we aim to improve the current Elections Canada Voter Information Services page. We also aim to create a smooth process for youth to gather information about candidates, which is a crucial need we picked up from our interview findings.

Prototype

Challenges in our solution

Incomplete Profiles
Bias Mitigation
Information Verification
Liability Concerns
We were aware of the major challenge of preserving the perception of non-partisanship and it was highly considered in redesigning the website. With the help of Elections Canada and the feedback from both the participants and SMEs, the team implemented designs to address this challenge.

My Learnings

Through this project, I gained several valuable insights and skills:
Divergence and Convergence Approach: I learned to adapt and apply both divergent and convergent thinking in different project phases, enhancing creativity and problem-solving
Constructive Criticism: I learned to discern and integrate constructive feedback that aligns with the project's goals and scope.
UI Design Improvement: Continuous feedback helped refine the UI design, demonstrating the importance of iterative improvement.
Research and References: Reading and referencing research papers provided a deeper understanding of the problem, which was essential for developing effective solutions.
This project has been an invaluable learning experience, equipping me with the tools and knowledge to tackle similar challenges in the future.

More Case Studies

This Case Study

Candidate Connect

A redesign of Elections Canada's Voter Information service aims to empower voters, by providing accessible candidate information.
Back to Top

Next Case Study

Byblos Restaurant

Created an online checkout option, streamlining the ordering process, and enhancing the overall customer experience.
Read Next Case Study