Interactive Display of Complex Political Data in an Effort to Promote Social Change
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Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 2010 Interactive display of complex political data in an effort to promote social change Tyler Travitz Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Travitz, Tyler, "Interactive display of complex political data in an effort to promote social change" (2010). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rochester Institute of Technology A Master of Fine Arts Thesis for Computer Graphics Design submitted to the Faculty of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences INTERACTIVE DISPLAY OF COMPLEX POLITICAL DATA IN AN EFFORT TO PROMOTE SOCIAL CHANGE Tyler A. Travitz May 5, 2010 02. APPROVALS Chief Advisor: Chris Jackson, Associate Professor, Computer Graphics Design Signature of Chief Advisor Date Associate Advisor: Alex Bitterman, Associate Professor, Graphic Design Signature of Associate Advisor Date Associate Advisor: Nancy Doubleday, Associate Professor, Interactive Games and Media Signature of Associate Advisor Date Chair Person, School of Design: Patti Lachance Signature of Chairperson Date Travitz 2 REPRODUCTION GRANTED I, Tyler A. Travitz, hereby grant permission to Rochester Institute of Technology to reproduce my thesis documentation in whole or part. Any reproduction will not be for commercial use or profit. Signature of Author Date INCLUSION IN THE RIT DIGITAL MEDIA LIBRARY ELECTRONIC THESIS AND DISSERTATION (ETD) ARCHIVE: I, Tyler A. Travitz, additionally grant to Rochester Institute of Technology Digital Media Library the non-exclusive license to archive arid provide electronic access to my thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media in perpetuity. I understand that my work, in addition to its bibliographic record and abstract, will be available to the worldwide community of scholars and researchers through the RIT DML. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles and books) all or part of this thesis. I am aware that Rochester Institute of Technology does not require registration of copyright for EETDs. I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached written permission statements from owners of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis. I certify that the version I submit is the same as that approved by my committee. Signature of Author Date Travitz 3 Rochester Institute of Technology College of Imaging Arts and Sciences Master of Fine Arts INTERACTIVE DISPLAY OF COMPLEX POLITICAL DATA IN AN EFFORT TO PROMOTE SOCIAL CHANGE 03. ABSTRACT Despite the fact that hard and fast data on politicians, such as voting records and campaign funding, is readily available on the Internet it is under-utilized in decision-making during the voting process. This may be due to how the data is presented. This project explores ways to make that data accessible and interactive through a Flash application/website, in a way that truly engages the user. Available Online: http://www.makeminecount.com Travitz 4 CONTENTS 01. Title Page 1 02. Approvals & Rights 2 03. Abstract 4 04. Introduction 6 05. Research A. Political Data Sites 8 B. Interactive Political Sites 14 C. Information/Interactive Design 15 D. Research Summary 18 06. Process A. Planning 19 B. Data Collection 29 C. Design 35 D. Development 48 07. Conclusion A. Feedback 59 B. Lessons Learned 61 C. Summary 65 08. Appendices A. Works Consulted 66 B. Issues Learning Module Questions & Answers 67 C. Survey 71 D. Project Proposal 73 Travitz 5 04. INTRODUCTION According to the Gallup Poll, as of June of 2008, 81% of respondents indicated that they disapproved of the way Congress was doing its job, 1From The Gallup Poll compared to only 53.3% disapproving ten years earlier1. Similarly, “Presidential Job Approval In the presidential approval rating was steadily decreasing from 90% in Depth” available at: 2 http://www.galluppoll.com September of 2001 to 28% as of June 2008 . These decreases are content/default.aspx?ci=1723 despite the fact that the U.S. Census Bureau indicated an increase of 5% in the number of people who voted over the past two elections.3 2From The Gallup Poll “Congress and the Public” available at: These statistics indicate that although more people are voting, http://www.galluppoll.com/ they are less satisfied with those whom they elect. While there are a content/default.aspx?ci=1600 number of factors that likely influence a constituency’s satisfaction with 3From the U.S. Census Bureau its elected officials, a contributing factor may be that voters are mis- or “Voting and Registration in the poorly-informed when they cast their vote. Thus, they elect someone Election of November 2004” available at: who does not do the job the way they want it to be done. http://www.census.gov prod/2006pubs/p20-556.pdf Voters may be ill-informed for a variety of reasons. Muckraking televi- *It is important to note that since sion campaign commercials often make the truth difficult to decipher, the preliminary research for as they come from various political action committees and corporate this project was conducted, interests. The media certainly has a huge role in swaying public opin- VoteSmart.org and OpenSecrets.org have updated ion by shaping how the candidates are presented. Rumors circulate on their designs. blogs across the internet. How does a voter really know who they are voting for? How do they determine whether the information they are presented with is biased or accurate? Despite the fact that hard and fast political data such as voting records and campaign funding is readily available to the public on websites such as Vote-Smart.org, OpenSecrets.org, and GovTrack.us; it is often presented in a traditional “point and click” format that is uninteresting and overwhelming.* Thus, this important information may not be utilized by voters to make decisions in the voting process. In the today’s media environment, where much of the information we consume is highly visual and largely interactive, this is both problematic and coun- terproductive to being a truly informed voter. As we neared an election, arguably one of the most important Presidential elections in the history of our nation, I felt it important that voters were armed with accurate information with which to make their decisions. Travitz 6 With that in mind, this thesis project attempted to answer the following question: Can interactivity be used to display complex political data in a way that both engages and entertains the user, without distracting from the seriousness of the content while appealing to age and experience-varied audiences? Due to the immense national interest in the 2008 Presidential campaign, I have developed a Flash-based web application that integrates a large amount of complex political data about the election candidates into a user-experience-driven interactive environment. My goals for the project were to: • Create an engaging user experience; • Make important, complex information more accessible and less boring; and • Develop a more informed voter and a more responsible citizen I also hope that if this model proves to be successful, it can be applied to future elections or expanded to include elections at various levels of government. My personal goals for this project were to: • Demonstrate my ability to effectively design and develop an interactive application; • Highlight my analytical and creative thinking skills through the creation of a design solution to displaying complex data; and • Demonstrate my well-roundedness by creating a utility of societal importance. Travitz 7 05. RESEARCH The research for this project is sweeping in both breadth and depth. Because this project incorporates many areas of design, it required research in a number of areas. Main research areas included: political data web sites, interactive political websites and information/interactive design. A. Political Data Web Sites For my preliminary research, I focused on investigating existing websites that managed complex political data. I chose to do so in order to understand what already existed and apply best practices to my own project. Additionally, understanding what others had already done, would allow me to create a better experience. It didn’t take long to amass a list of several websites that dealt displaying such data. Interestingly, most of the sites pulled data from one another to provide their various features. VoteSmart.org The primary source of inspiration for this project is the political web site Project Vote-Smart web site (www.vote-smart.org). Project Vote-Smart is a non-profit organization that has had more than 6,000 people volun- teer over the past 16 years to develop an extensive database of political information. Vote-Smart is one of the most in-depth political websites on the Internet. Their database includes biographical, voting record, cam- paign finance, issue stances, and many other categories of information for major elected officials. These officials include the President and presi- dential candidates, Vice President and vice presidential candidates, U.S. Representatives, Senators, Governors and Lt. Governors, State Legisla- tors, and several other statewide positions. The Project Vote-Smart web site allows users to enter their zip code and see a list of these officials. The user can then click on name of each official to access the aforemen- tioned data. While the data on this web site is extremely useful, its presentation is “dry” and arguably difficult to sift through due to its largely “point and click,” text-based design. The user is presented with very complex infor- mation in ways that, by today’s web standards, are very primitive, as it lacks any interactivity (figure 5A-1).