UX research & Case Study
Informed Indian Voter
A Case Study
Perspective:
User Experience
Created By:
Shraddha Upadhyay
The Challenge
How does an Indian voter check about the contesting candidates during election?
In 2003, Supreme court passed a verdict upholding the constitutional right of the people to know the antecedents of electoral candidates.
If the voter’s access to this information can be expanded significantly, it has the potential to influence the choices they make when they vote.
My Role:
UX Researcher
Timeline:
3 weeks
Tools Used
Starting Point
Election season is going on!
Campaigns, ads, news everywhere.
I was scrolling through social media when I saw posts from news pages like The Quint, Print & Wire posting about candidates profiles who are contesting from their constituency.
These posts intrigued me as it was much needed information for us voters to take an informed decision while casting their vote.
“ Is there a dedicated platform where I can know about my candidates? “
Hypothesis
I made a hypothesis based on my experience about the political temperament of people I have known and met.
Indian voters have a lack of awareness about their candidates.
Lack of reliable source that consolidates candidate info.
Many don’t know about the concept of MPs & constituency.
I want to do some
research
to understand the
problem better and
test my Hypothesis
Knowing the Users
Voters of India -
An Indian citizen, who is 18 or above.
I interviewed eligible voters from different backgrounds (gender, age groups, socio-economic)
I conducted a formal survey to gather data from people about their sources of news & candidate information & what factors do they consider while voting.
Referred various news media for useful statistical daa, their user interviews & surveys.
Knowing the Users
Source: FirstPost
YEAR 2024
18 Mn
First - Time Voters
40%
Get Political updates from Instagram
17%
Choose Twitter
26%
Choose Youtube
Knowing the Users
Source: The Economic Time
India’s Internet behaviour - tech savvyness
820 Mn
Active internet users
84.5 %
of eligible voters are internet users
Knowing the Users
Empathy Map
I gained many insights through user interviews & survey and visualized it using an empathy map to understand the user better and identify user frustrations, confusions & unmet needs
Key Insights - User BehaviouR & Frustrations
Social media & TV news most popular news sources.
Distractions from all kinds of content on TV & social media
Chances of Misinformation/ fake news which dilutes the quality of data
Political campaigns / Promotions / banner & pamphlet ads are some sources but lack useful information to make an informed vote.
Clutter
But these sources give insufficient Information about
I watch news, but I don’t know much about who is contesting from my area
Many eligible voters are not sure about WHEN, HOW and WHERE of elections.
Many eligible voters don’t know about the concept of Constituency and Representatives in parliament
“I’m not Sure”
People get to know about candidates through word of mouth or social media news.
“I will google”
“I vote to the party not candidate”
“I know about popular NETA candidates”
“I vote to whom my family/friend votes”
“I don’t know about my candidate but I want to..”
Some popular Quotes
Knowing the options available
What are the platforms available online where I can know about my candidate quickly ?
Limitations of KYC app
By Election Commission of India
Allows voters to search for candidates by their names.
Displays information about the candidate's criminal antecedents, if any.
Allows voters to Download Affidavits of candidates
Showing ‘no results’ in most searches by name
Poor usability & visual experience
Users complain of incomplete & limited information
Doesn’t interpret affidavit information for the voters
Know Your Candidate App (KYC)
Voter’s Perspective: A mass of raw and remote data that needs to be accessed, processed and interpreted, along with any other information, before he/she decides to vote for a candidate.
The Returning officer verifies the authenticity of these details and accordingly registers the nomination.
While applying for their nomination to contest elections,
a person submits an affidavit along with their nomination form to the Election Commission of India
ECI makes these affidavits available for the public as per their right to information of Candidate on their App & website.
The affidavit should have the following details filled by the candidate:
However, the EC does not properly verify these wealth statements & criminal records with National Board of Revenue and Anti- Corruption Commission.
Details of their Criminal records (if any)
Their Assets, loans & Liabilities
Affidavits?
MyNeta.in
by Association for Democratic Reforms
Open data Repository platform
whoismyneta.com
by opencity.in
Creates Repository of data from sources including ADR & PRS
prsindia.org
by PRS Legislative research
Report card
Legislative Activity of current MPs/MLAs
These are Election Watch comprises background reports based on Criminal, Financial, Educational and Income Tax details of Candidates and Winners (MPs, MLAs and Ministers) who have contested Elections to State Assemblies, the Parliament and a few local bodies.
Since the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court in 2003,
Independent, non-profit organizations like below conduct election watch.
Other sources
whoismyneta.com
by opencity.in
Creates Repository of data from myneta.in & PRS
Search for Neta/ Constituency works
Easy to Interpret information from the candidate affidavits
Basic details: Name, Age, Party, Constituency, etc
Education details
Pending & Convicted Criminal cases
Assets, Liabilities, Status of ITR
Activities in Parliament- Attendance, Questions
MyNeta.in
by Association for Democratic Reforms
Search for Neta Constituency works
Analysis of all candidate background
Easy to Interpret information from candidate affidavits
Basic details: Name, Age, Party, Constituency, etc
Education details
Pending & Convicted Criminal cases
Assets, Liabilities, Status of ITR
Limitations
Does not show report card
Note: This website also shows electoral bonds data disclosed by SBI
Find Your MP at prsindia.org
by PRS Legislative research
Legislative activities of Current MPs MLAs
More information like bills / Acts / budgets
We can download a pdf having basic details of contesting candidates in upcoming elections
Limitations
Search by MP name/ Constituency name is unnecessarily complex
Doesn’t show detailed information about contesting candidates in upcoming elections
Summary
The platforms myneta.in, whoismyneta.com, prsindia.in, in-spite of certain drawbacks, satisfactorily serve a great deal of information voters need to review a candidate.
They work very well but for a specific type of use cases.
Some example use cases for a voter:
I want to quickly check who all are contesting from Nagpur constituency, their party, age & education.
I want to search how active was an MP in their last term, the questions they raised.
I want to browse for all contesting candidates of multiple constituencies throughout India at a single place.
I want to check for the assets declared by a candidate to ECI, etc.
Provides great repository for obtaining information, facilitating a certain level of awareness.
They greatly aid in quickly searching and learning about my representative.
But
A use case that is out of their scope:
As a voter, I want to deep dive into
Development work done in different sectors.
Their proposals on important issues like healthcare, education, economy and national security
Fact-checking
Political experience
Their policy platforms, agendas, etc
But to cover all these aspects in this level of detail, it takes investigation & dissemination
This is where News Media comes into picture.
News Media
Their reach through journalism is deeper in nature. Journalism informs voters about contesting candidates through various means:
Candidate profiles
Policy analysis
Campaign coverage
Interviews & debates
Fact- checking
Endorsements and Opinions
Localized Coverage
Most of the news media are political watchdogs, covering & reporting all kinds of information on politics along with the one on contesting candidates.
But again, what they can’t provide is a repository of data, for the voter to browse through, for quick candidate scan.
Sponsors- supported news media companies.
Independent journalists
People-supported, independent news media companies.
Newspapers
Medium - TV, YouTube, Social media, articles, websites, print media
Challenges
Information is deep but random in nature
Mostly covers important & famous candidates & Netas
I can’t search and get all the info about a Neta. You still have to do some research
Chances of misinformation & bias
Repository platforms like myneta.in, whoismyneta.com, prsindia.in, and News media / Journalling platforms, both, serve different use cases. Both useful and important in different contexts.
But there is no single platform which can account for both these use cases.
A one stop website or App where voters can find “EVERYTHING ABOUT A CANDIDATE”
Voters always have to do some level of research depending upon the type of insights they want. A quick refer from repository data or in-depth analysis of candidate.
And a very curious voter will always have to do some personal level research to access the information they are looking for.
Why?
Because it is politics. It is emotionally and financially driven. Information is huge, information vendors are numerous, information is diluted.
No single Entity can be given the responsibility to access, process & interpret every circulating data about electing candidates, compiling it & presenting it at one place.
Research insights
If we visualize an app
(which might not do all these things)
which can just fetch information from variety of sources at one place leaving it for the users to interpret? A concept app closest to a voter’s needs?
To be Continued...
Take away
Created By:
Shraddha Upadhyay
Dated:
09.05.2024
Get in Touch
shraddhaup99@gmail.com