AKTIONER
A mobile app to aggregate and promote local civic actions and participation.
Product: Mobile app design and prototype
Role: Product Manager, Designer, UX Researcher
Aktioner was a personal project with the goals of centralizing local civic actions, making them accessible and easy to engage with, and engaging with activists regardless of issue interest or organization affiliation. At the time, I was deeply involved in digital organizing with local progressive organizations, and this was a direct response to the problems I encountered in my work.
Who's it for?
Activists, Organizers, and Activated Residents
The main audience for this product was folks who already were participating in civic actions, organization members and staff, but more importantly, folks who wanted to get involved civically but didn’t have a clear way to do so.
My Role
My role as the principal ideator and designer was to design and carry out the research, connect with local leaders and get a group of stakeholders to get involved and provide feedback at different stages; I managed analyzing results, ideating features, wireframing, designing, and prototyping the app in order to launch an MVP.
The Problem
Working in advocacy and electoral campaigns, it became clear that organizations hosting actions would and could only drive their supporters to participate and would have to rely on the kindness of other organizations to mobilize their bases to participate in another’s action. Moreover, the only ways to find out about an action happening was if you were directly connected to an organization, as a subscriber, member, or staff, or if you had a friend in that position; aside from that, it was quite difficult for a non-activist to participate in civic actions. Lastly, participating in actions from a technology perspective was outdated, bulky and ugly forms, a series of clicks in order to get something done, very few streamlined flows, little design focused on a pleasant user experience, very high bars.
The problem then was how do we make actions accessible to everyone, regardless of their organization affiliation, and how do we make them easy to engage with?
Prep Work
I began the project by interviewing directors and senior staff at local advocacy organizations who have a base and who typically host and / or participate in actions. I gathered answers to questions regarding pain points around mobilizing, using technology, effectively reaching and engaging with their base, and getting folks to take action and get involved. I studied all potential competitors and their products and spoke with people who used those products and got their feedback on pain points, their usage cases, and suggestions for improvement.
Features
I began creating the features of the app to include tracking metrics to gameify activism, by having users set weekly or monthly goals and then reminding them of their goals as they progress. I also included a results section where folks could see the campaigns they’ve taken action, statistics on how many actions have been taken collectively, and showing the status of the campaign results, did the intended result or power shift occur or not? Another feature that was included was a breakdown of local issues in an instagram-story like fashion, where users could swipe to learn more about the issue. Moreover, a feature allowing to quickly take action right from the app such as email or tweet at your representative, call your representative, text an action to specific friends, or add an action / event to your calendar.
Features
Design & Prototype
I developed feature-rich wireframes and designs which I eventually used to develop a fully functional prototype and I obtained direct feedback from stakeholders at every step of the process.
