Pactos app
Political alliances calculator available for every person
Project overview
After launching on TV news a pacts calculator, Antonio (developer), created a simple screen where users could calculate pacts and launched it on Google Play. It was the first version. Users liked it, and the app gained popularity very quickly - we literally got filled with feedback.
Our main goal was to create an app where users can calculate possible alliances for mayoralties, autonomous communities or seats in the European Parliament. Here users can interact with electoral results right from our app and calculate precisely and instantly who will be president of the government considering all the possible electoral pacts.
Our users are people who are passionate about politics or just those who want to create their own personal elections.
My role:
UX/UI designer leading the app from conception to delivery. Usability, and Interaction design
Tools:
Sketch / Adobe XD / Adobe Illustrator / Zeplin
Responsibilities:
- Paper and digital wireframes
- Usability testing
This project was created by YaikoStudio where my role was a UX designer.
Design challenges
Reversed direction of understanding our users
As the app was created on the go, there was no previous user research. We had to figure out our users' needs and pain points after the app was launched.
Structure challenge
The Main Screen - is the screen where all the interactions happen.
The challenge here was to place all necessary information about parties visibly in one place and enable users to test pacts variations repeatedly without annoying them. It was essential to resolve its complexity with natural user interactions, and motion in mind, therefore guaranteeing its simple usability.
1. Name of elections
2. Pacts area
3. Seats and mayoralties information
4. Parties
5. Options
Motion challenge, User Feedback
Add one party or add multiple parties at a time
In Pactos users are able to touch multiple parties and add them all at the same time. We were receiving feedback, and noticed that some of the users were trying to drag´n´drop parties, so, after winning a battle with the developer we added this option too.
Accessibility challenge
The danger of matching colors of the application with colors of parties - color challenge
To avoid the manipulative aspect of our app 'so the users can feel safe when using it' we opted for a combination of lime and dark blue-gray colors, as it was the most neutral in comparison with other partie´s colors.
Conclusion
Impact
The Pactos application is a useful and fun tool for calculating possible political alliances.
What I learned
While designing the app I learned that users do not care very much about nice images, as long as they achieve their goals effectively.
Looking forward
Certainly the search process needs to be improved, now it is limited. Also, for multiple user requests, we would like to add graphics and charts.
"I can not give this app less than five stars, because it does what it promises."
User´s comment on Google Play
