Lola Howell

Introduction

 

This project was part of a Mobile Communication and Social Practice course taken at the University of Washington. 

 

Problem

 

With everything going on in our busy lives, it’s difficult to put thought into action and crank out enough effort to make real, impacting social change. Women from all walks of life should feel empowered, strong, and capable, and be able to exercise their desire for good-will. That is why a call-to-action application aimed at the women is so vital. There is currently no app specifically tailored for women’s rights, and women’s issues. It’s time to provide a platform that directly encourages female participation, and promotes political action for causes we care about.

 

Research

 

Our aim for this app was to understand and answer the question “How identity, in our case female, affects/drives design and features in mobile applications?”. With the help of research, we attempted to answer our research question and design successful application which will not only encourage political participation and provide a safe place for women to engage in political issues without any pre-conceived assumptions given by society.

 

Our first source for research was an article, Mobile Media, and Political Participation,  that was in our course material. The article stated that usually people who use mobile technology for political participation come from higher socioeconomic classes, tech-savvy, and have an interest in politics. It also pointed out that people from lower socioeconomic standing, nontech savvy and women are less likely to use mobile technology for political participation. Our second source for research was article Lez takes time also from our course material. The article analyzed the dating app development for the lesbian community. It stated that as the dating apps for gay and hetero-identified users flourish, the lesbian-identified apps grow painfully slow. It is framed as “problem” by users, developers, and investors. This “problem” is observed in the article is designing lesbian contact. The authors of the article were trying to understand how assumptions about lesbian identities and dating are built into the apps. The article very clearly stated that the attempts to reskin gay male apps and convert them into a lesbian contact app is a big mistake. Therefore it was our focus to create an application that will keep focused on the identity of our users, and let that identity drive our design. We designed our app based on research coming from women’s preferences so that it would properly serve the target audience (women) and increase their political participation. Thus, contributing to a social justice issue by empowering women interested in political issues.

 

As a part of the research, we also completed a short competition review that exists for our mobile application. We found two applications that encouraged to participate in political issues:

• iCitizen, an app that has a straightforward blue and white layout, almost like a newspaper or a government website.

• UltraViolet, an e-mail subscription, and while it is useful it lacks the interactive nature of an app.

Both the app and the e-mail subscription employ a newspaper-like design. Only UltraViolet is focused on women’s rights, and it lacks the interactive nature of an app. iCitizen focuses on politics broadly.

 

Solution/Concept

 

OURVoice is a mobile application that allows women, and those who identify as a woman, to be politically active through different inspiring resources. This application will offer on-the-go women all of the vital information related to their particular location and hard-hitting issues of their particular interest. Women will be able to engage in activities such as sharing information through social media, signing up for demonstrations, showing support for the cause by donating, and other activities designed to make women feel empowered and heard.

 

The goal of this application is to give all women a voice in their local and national political sphere. This application would increase women’s political participation in the community and provide them with a safe place to give opinions. Other general goals for this design include following:

• Inform users about issues affecting them, their community, and the country

• Encourage participation in local and federal government

• Turn passive citizens into active citizens

 

Information Architecture