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AK Have Your Say

An app that bridges communication between the community and the local council.

Type
Timeline
University project
January - February 2024
Team
Tools
3 students
Figma , Miro
At a glance

As a part of my Master of User Experience Design, I collaborated with 2 other students to work on a university project regarding local elections.

Our aim was to increase participation for voting and engagement with the local council.

My role

  • Primary & Secondary Research

  • Concept ideation & development

  • Usability testing & analysis

  • UI design & prototyping

The challenge

In recent local elections in Auckland, voter participation was quite low. To tackle this, we aim to find a way to connect with harder-to-reach communities.

The low turnout sheds light on issues such as:

Relevance of local governance to everyday life

Distrust and Disengagement from the system

Understanding about local government

Complicated voting process

Feeling disconnected to the local government

How might we facilitate community engagement and participation in local council matters to encourage greater voter turnout?

Design process

Quantitative - surveys
Did not vote
Voted

We survey 26 participants to get a glimpse of what opinions and attitudes people might have regarding the local council and elections.

Survey questions included topics about:

 

  • Voting at local council elections

  • Experiences with the local council

  • Attitudes towards local council

  • Local council activity

  • Feedback on local government proposals

Qualitative - interviews
I feel pretty disengaged with local council so I don't really think about it. I don't vote. I just don't think it really makes a difference.

“ 

” 

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 participants about their experiences with local council.

These interviews were a mix of in-person and video chats and were 30-40 minutes long.
These interviews focused on the following topics:

​

  • Knowledge and attitudes about local council.

  • Knowledge and attitudes about voting in local elections.

  • Experience and behaviours around interacting with local council.

  • Community engagement

Existing website teardown

Our findings show that people don’t know where to find information about local council proposals and how to provide feedback on them. We analysed the existing Auckland Council proposals page to discover its strengths and weaknesses to help us develop a solution to our design question.

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No option to filter these proposals

Cards show when they are open for feedback.
This gives the user a quick snapshot of important information.

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Project timeline shows people the expected phases of the project and where the project currently sits

Information is long and difficult to digest and skim through.

To have your say, users must complete a form, then either scan and email it or deliver it in person or post it, which adds to the effort and discourages feedback.

There is a feedback section here which creates inconsistencies with the information above

Ideation

Currently there is no official platform for members of the community to discuss this topic or formally raise any concerns they might have.

We found that a common method of receiving updates was engaging with local community, friends and family and often through social media and community pages.

This gave us the idea to explore the possibility of creating a space for people to have conversations about the current proposals while enhancing the experience of reading about them.

Lo-Fi

This is the prototype we used for our usability tests.

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Usability test insights
Before
After
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Insight 1

People need clear instructional buttons, especially in an unfamiliar app.

 

Icons for links may not be immediately recognisable, requiring users to spend time learning their meanings.

 

This initial learning curve can be a barrier to early engagement with the app.

Insight 2

Some participants found the filter layout confusing, while others appreciated its usefulness for finding interesting content.

 

This highlights the need for an easy and simple filtering system, helping users interact with relevant proposals and discussions.

Before
After
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Userflow

Home

Proposals

Proposal

Feedback

Conversations

Chat

The outcome

The AK have your say app aims to enhance the public perception of local council by boosting the visibility of local proposals and initiatives, and encouraging community engagement.

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Home page

  • Popular local council topics

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  • ‘Closing soon’ proposals are highlighted to show urgency

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  • Events and community section

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  • Watchlist for saved proposals and topics

Proposals

  • List of current local council proposals presenting in a digestible format

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  • A series of tabs helps split the information up into easy to read sections

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  • ‘What people are saying’ function shows popular posts relating to the proposal, allowing them to comment or post

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Conversations

  • A way for community members to discuss proposals, ideas and questions

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  • This is also a place for local council members to engage with the community by engaging with them in the comments

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  • Comments related to a proposal will be referenced and linked so people who are interested can check the proposal out

Final prototype

Key learnings

Understanding politics through a user-centric lens
This project really showed me the importance of addressing political disengagement by thinking about what people need. Instead of just creating an online voting platform, we dug deeper to understand the real issues. We realised that making local government info easy to access, understand, and engage with is crucial. So, we designed an app that feels like social media, encouraging easy feedback and conversations to help boost community involvement and awareness.
Importance of a supportive team
Working with my teammates, whom I had collaborated with before, created a smooth and effective team dynamic. Despite the challenges of working remotely from Auckland away from the class, this experience strengthened our ability to communicate and make decisions independently. Although we lacked in-class feedback, we supported each other and gradually built confidence in our choices, which enhanced our teamwork and problem-solving skills in a remote setting.

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