Concept for an iPad application to help people make informed voting decisions using IBM’s Watson. This was in response to the ask: “create an app or service that leverages Watson’s computing capabilities and services in the cloud." This project was done in collaboration with IBM Design. My teammates for this project were Emma Fagergren and Tony Pattin. This is one of the projects for Marty Siegel's Rapid Design for Slow Change course at Indiana University Bloomington.

1. VOTING WITH WATSON
FOR IBM DESIGN
Emma Fagergren | Tony Pattin | Angélica Rosenzweig

2. INTRO
DEMOCRACY
”Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express
their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real
safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education. ”
Benjamin Franklin

3. OVERVIEW
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROBLEM 4
RESEARCH INSIGHTS 5
TARGET USERS 6
CORE 7
EXPERIENCE MAP 9
SCENARIO & WIREFRAMES 11
SYSTEM MAP 23
DATA SOURCE 24
POTENTIAL ISSUES 25
FINANCIAL 26
THANK YOU 27
APPENDIX 28

4. PROBLEM
PROBLEM
Parsing information to stay politically informed is time
consuming as well as energy consuming, and this in turn can
can discourage people from voting.

5. RESEARCH INSIGHTS
CONFIDENCE MATTERS
Voting is considered “the right thing” to do, but a low
confidence in understanding of political issues and parties
discourages voting (1).
PRESENTATION MATTERS
It is not lack of information that is the problem, it is lack of
information presented in a way that people can relate to.

6. TARGET USER
TARGET USERS
Individuals who want to vote but feel like they don't know
enough to make an informed decision.

7. CORE
CORE
Make complex historical and current political data transparent
and digestible to aid the voting decision process.

8. CORE
DO THIS BY:
Letting users ask Watson questions (in natural language)
Synthesizing information relating to issues that the user has
identified as relevant
Showing how candidate’s values align with the user’s
WE ARE NOT:
Telling the user who to vote for. The app should be politically
neutral.

9. EXPERIENCE MAP

10. OUR FOCUS:
EXPERIENCE MAP

11. SCENARIO
It is the fall of 2016 and with elections coming up
millions of Americans are getting ready to vote. Some
are certain who they are voting for, others are still trying
to decide.

12. SCENARIO
Marie, a recent college graduate feels that she should
vote - she has grown up hearing that “it is the right thing
to do”. But who should she vote for? She’s not sure and
she feels that she doesn’t know enough about politics
to make a good decision. She doesn’t want to vote
based on the candidates advertisements, looks or
gender, but on how their values align with hers.

13. SCENARIO
Marie follows the news and has a general idea about
the candidates, but she wants to know where they stand
in question that are important to her - education and
the environment. Her Google searches for candidates
return thousands of hits, and none really answer her
questions. She doesn’t have the time it takes to make
sense of the (sometimes contradicting) information, and
some candidates seem to say the same thing.
Frustrated, Marie leaves her computer.

14. SCENARIO
A couple of weeks later Marie is talking to her friend
Alex about the election. Alex has an interest in politics
and after Marie has voiced her frustration, he mentions
a new app he has found. He suggest Marie use it to find
out answers about things she cares about in the
upcoming election.

15. WIREFRAMES
After listening to Alex, Marie
decides to give it a go. They try
out the app together and Alex
helps Marie create an account.
She gets to choose which
political issues she is
interested in. Marie also fills out
where she lives.

16. WIREFRAMES
When her profile is created,
Marie is presented with a home
screen that serves as a onestop shop for her upcoming
election research. She notices
the information shown relates
to the issues she thought were
most interesting. On the home
page, Marie has access to
various information:
Trending Topics
Media
Candidates
Personal Profile
Watson
Favorites

17. WIREFRAMES
Marie is interested in knowing
what others have been saying
about the similar topics, so she
decides to click on Trending.
Here, Marie can see questions
that other people have asked
“Watson”. She browses through
the questions that other people
have asked. Some seem
irrelevant or strange to her, but
other questions peak her
interest and she clicks on “See
More” to read the answers
generated by Watson.

18. WIREFRAMES
Marie decides to ask Watson a
question herself. She wants to
know which candidate in her
state is most passionate about
creating better schools, and
starts typing in her question.

19. WIREFRAMES
Watson then presents Marie
with results from the search.
The top answer is presented
with a high confidence level;
the other two results are
presented with a medium
confidence level. She saves this
question, then continues to
explore other questions of her
interest.

20. SCENARIO
Later that week Marie and Alex are watching a TVdebate between two senators. Marie wants to know
more about the senators and opens up the app. After
giving her opinion on a number of questions, Marie is
able tosee to which degree the candidates values align
with her own. She likes this summary; it gives her
information beyond what she has learned from the
debate.

21. SCENARIO
Marie explores the “Candidates
Page”. With a 90% match, she
has found out that the one of
the senators aligns with most of
her values and interest.

22. SCENARIO
A couple of weeks passes and soon it is time to vote.
Marie feels that this time she has tried her best to make
an informed decision, and for once she will stay up to
follow the results on TV.*
*Who Marie ended up voting for is confidential.

23. SYSTEM MAP

24. DATA SOURCE
CORPUS DATA
Historical political records
News feeds
Current legislation
Political parties site
Wikipedia
Political Blogs

25. POTENTIAL ISSUES
DIFFERENT CANDIDATES
Watson is likely to find more information for experienced
candidates than new candidates. This might affect confidence
levels.
CONFIDENCE LEVELS
Use Watson’s Confidence levels to avoid deception. The nature of
political information is often biased, but by looking at many
different sources, Watson triangulate between different sources to
create meaning and show confidence levels in the response

26. FINANCIAL
SELLING DATA
After a period of use, the app will have collected user data
that will be of interest to politicians and campaign managers.
Selling this data would generate revenue.
POTENTIAL SPONSORS
Independent civic organizations
Project Vote Smart
Federal Election Commission (FEC)

27. THANK YOU
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
IBM Design
Tarun Gangwani
Chung-Ching Huang
Brandon Le
Mark Marrara
Marty Siegel
HCI/d 2014 Cohort

28. APPENDIX
RESEARCH
(1) Youth Federal Election voting intention
http:/
/www.whitlam.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/507803/Newsp
oll_Analysis_Update_Election_Poll_Update_Aug_2013.pdf @ 20 Nov. 2013
(2) http:/
/photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/30145/publicationsenglish/USA_Elections_InBrief.pdf @ 20 Nov. 2013

29. APPENDIX
INSPIRATION FROM EXEMPLARS
Politico (app)
One-stop shop for coverage
of the president, Congress,
2014 Midterm elections, and
2016 presidential race
Settle It! (app)
Fact checking site for
political information

30. APPENDIX
OUR PROCESS
Understanding Watson
Brainstorming problem spaces
Research: Understanding the voting process
Personas
Sketching and problem exploration
User case scenarios
High-fidelity wireframes and graphics
Crafting deliverables