UC Berkeley CS160 Spring 2013 User Interface Design

1. UC Berkeley CS160 Spring 2013 User Interface Design Billiterate Christina Hang Eric Xiao Linda Cai Scott Stewart Bringing local politics to the masses. Target User Both politically uninformed and informed residents in any city can access local agenda bills for a variety of city meetings as well as voice their approval or disapproval through the application. Problem Only a very small percentage of the community are involved in local politics or attend City Council meetings. Consequently, many are unaware of what or how local political decisions will affect them. Action must be taken to make local politics more accessible to the masses. The Trending tab shows the most popular and controversial bills in a user’s city. Solution Our application provides a space for communities to discuss local bills being considered, and draw that who are unfamiliar with local politics to become more involved through social media and discussion. Billiterate allows users to find out more about what's happening in their local community and see what bill topics are particularly controversial. Design Evolution Billiterate’s design changed over time to become more accessible to those unfamiliar with local politics. Meetings and bills are now organized hierarchically by date and bill titles are written in user-friendly language. Bill information provide users with a convenient method of learning about bills and how these bills are perceived by their local communities. Users can post comments on a bill to voice their opinion. In the representatives tab, you can view different city representatives, learn more about them on their webpage, or contact them directly. The Agenda page lists city meetings by date. Here you can view a bill or find the meeting location on a map. Final Prototype Users are directed to the Agenda page which shows them recent and upcoming local city meetings. Tabs allow users to easily navigate between Agendas, Trending bills, and City Representatives. Through the app, users can read about and comment on a bill on the bill’s information page, contact local representatives, and see which bills are popular with other users. Clicking “Get More Information” on the bill page sends the user to a google search of the bill. The bill information page gives users more details about the bill and provides a space for expressing their opinions. Users can easily find their way to city meetings using the “Find Meeting Location” feature.