Summary
For our first project at OnlyForward, we wanted to try building something socially impactful. Gov’r was an iOS app designed to help citizens quickly discover who represents them and provide a new channel for direct dialogue with their political representatives. I worked on the user experience, interface and visual design.
The problem
With a provincial election approaching in Ontario, we felt that there was a better way to engage citizens in the election process. As we talked to people, we found that most didn’t know who represented them, what they did day-to-day or how to meaningfully engage with them if they had concerns about an issue.
Onboarding
By entering their postal code, users could view a complete list of their representatives across all levels of government.
Content cards
The news feed combined relevant news articles and tweets from all the politicians users followed. Inside Gov'r we also added a way to ask your elected representatives questions and get back 1-3 minute long video responses in a TikTok-style format. Below are examples of content cards displayed in the feed.
What happened?
We reached a few thousand daily active users, which was a solid outcome considering the app's late launch during the 2022 Ontario election cycle. Had we gained more traction, we planned to pursue funding to sustain the app, as maintaining an up-to-date database of political representatives was a significant effort, particularly because there isn’t a central source for this information. While we received lots of positive feedback, we decided to sunset Gov’r shortly after the election as it didn’t achieve the level of impact needed to justify continuing.
