People Power 

People Power is an interactive kiosk that allows users to view congressmen working for or against the environment, and then call that individual’s office.

Team Members: Sidney Brinson, Meaghan Kennedy, Allie Miller, Veronica Orecchia, Ashley Touchton (Project of Spark Corps)
Client: Group Hug
Date Completed: May 2017
Exhibitions: Group Hug New York Design Week 2017 Power Me; Museum of Design Atlanta's Luba Lukova Designing Justice

Background. 

In the Spring of 2017, Spark Corps was asked by NYC design collective Group Hug to develop an idea that bridged design and sustainability for their 2017 NYCxDesign Week Show. With this objective, we wanted to look at the idea of power in a political sense.

How could we use design to improve how constituents to better engage with their elected officials in regards to environmental issues? The resulting design is People Power, an interactive kiosk that borrows the form language of both a telephone booth and voting booth to create a new experience for engaging with our elected officials.

Throughout the development and installation process for Group Hug, we were approached by Museum of Design Atlanta to exhibit the piece in their summer show Designing Justice alongside world renowned artist Luba Lukova. 

Concept Development

To make matters even more interesting, we had to develop a way to transport the design from Atlanta, GA to the Group Hug show in New York City. To solve this, designer Sidney Brinson broke down the design into a series of 12 laser cut pieces that would fit into a standard piece of carry on luggage.

We also developed a cohesive brand language to guide the app development and physical assets of the project. We wanted these to mimic the stickers you might get on voting day, but used a more modern color palette and approachable type faces. 

Final Design

USE CASE VIDEO

User Journey

The People Power app asks users to choose 1 of six environmental causes they care about. Then, they can see a congressmen who does or does not support that issue. Once and issue is selected, the user is given a phone script to call the elected official in support or dissent of their actions. They can then tweet what they did. Users are presented with a clean and approachable app that walks them trough the interaction with the goal of making the process less intimidating. 

Once complete, the user can get a sticker that says, “I Called” as a nod to the “I Voted” stickers received on election day. In addition, they can take a gold star and place it next to the issues they are most passionate about. This mix of both digital and analogue engagement methods allows users to engage with the installation regardless of their comfort level.