The goal of this project was to discover why young people are not voting and how we can encourage them to get out and cast a ballot.

To begin, we conducted ethnographic research by interviewing 212 students on Northern Illinois University’s DeKalb campus. In order to get a variety of viewpoints, we talked with college students of all ethnicities, genders, ages and areas of study. By turning to college students and hearing from them first hand, our hope was that they would help us find a solution.

After analyzing the data one problem in particular stuck out; 20% of students did not know how to register. Therefore, educating students on how to register and making the process to do so much easier became the focus of this project. Through the creation of a mobile app, students would be given the opportunity to easily register to vote.

 Mobile App Design

The app gives users an opportunity to register to vote, update an address or name, play trivia and check their application status. The registration process through the app is identical to the physical application, but simplified and broken down into a step by step process. The app also allows users to play trivia solo or challenge friends to a duel.

Try the app out yourself.