and I'm back at it again with the blogging
It's been a busy start to 2019, but I've made it. From driving cross country to flying cross country, there's been no end to the hustle. I was hoping I'd get a short respite and an easy start to my last semester but UC had other plans. I'm trying to hit the ground running. Kinda. It's only been slightly successful.
For my non-designer friends, Capstone is basically a designer's senior thesis. It's an accumulation of all our knowledge put to the test. Mine's been a mess (surprise). But since I only have a few months to finish it, I've really started to buckle down. I'll be documenting my process here and on Medium, since our class requires a process book. This will be an easy way to force myself to stay on track... Hopefully.
So Here's My Pitch -
The state of politics is complex and wrought with frustration. This causes people to not only avoid discussion of current events and politicians, but also promotes a lack of basic education as to how the United States government works. Simple Politics is a website that educates new-to-voting users in a middle class and underprivileged environment with an open, friendly voice. Helping them feel well informed & confident in their voting.
Not bad right?
TLDR: I'm hoping to facilitate confidence. I want people to know what's going on when they head to the polls and I want everything to be simple. That's the key word there, SIMPLE. You glance, you learn, you vote (I stress). There's no fake news. There's no mud slinging. There's no money, no ads, no nothing. Just the bare bones.
Originally I wanted to educate people on the workings of the government, but after presenting in class I realized it's probably more essential to go after educating people on their ballot. Of course, that's no easy task. While I'm branding, site mapping, and wire framing, I need to gather data on my subjects. Those pesky politicians. I have two ideas on how to go about collecting my data. I can either create a quick survey with yes, no, and unsure answers only (remember simple). Or I can dig through social media, official websites, etc to find the information I want. Both have their pros and cons. The downside of doing the survey is, there's no guarantee that the politicians will get back to me. The downside of the site surfing is it's gonna take a lot of time.
So, I'm at an impasse.
I'll have to start one or the other pretty soon here. But I also don't want to stress myself out. Our DAAP show class says that they aren't trying to screw us over, but I can feel it in my bones that they are. So I'm forcing myself to choose one path or the other next week. For now, I'm focusing on branding and wire framing. The branding is garbage (again, surprise) but I'm pretty happy with the direction my wireframes are going.
Anyways, I'm leaving ya hanging. Nothing like a good cliffhanger to keep my readers coming back for more ;)
As with all my posts, I hope those who read my blog will start to offer suggestions for content they'd like to see. So please, drop by the comments section. I am always looking for feedback and critique, not just on this post, but all of them.