Digital Democracy

A first-of-its-kind platform, Digital Democracy creates a searchable archive of all statements made in state legislative hearings. Now anyone can search, watch, and share statements made by state lawmakers, lobbyists, and advocates as they debate, craft, and vote on policy proposals.

The Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy (IATPP), a non-profit within Cal Poly Corporation, came to us with a need to design the front-end of their Digital Democracy platform. The Cal Poly Computer Science Department had developed the entire backend of the site without paying particular attention to the UI and UX needed for a user to properly navigate and use the platform. IATPP needed our expertise in user experience design to create a user-friendly front-end that integrated seamlessly with the powerful backend capabilities.

Working closely with the Cal Poly Computer Science and IATPP’s teams, we outlined a plan to create a user experience that kept the robust platform simple and easy to use. We established a visual system that could be applied to the various legislative entities such as bills, hearings, speakers, and organizations. This allowed users to easily find and digest information without becoming overwhelmed with the data. The final product was a newly designed and developed front-end user experience that addressed all the major UX problems.