User experience will be the secret weapon of the 2008 get-out-the-vote campaignTraditional political
January 2, 2008
Traditional political wisdom segments the electorate into three basic populations: us, them and swing voters. Political campaigns focus their get-out-the-vote operations on the us and swing segments and ignore the rest. But in 2004 the Republican National Committee turned conventional wisdom on it head. They used sophisticated data mining to microtarget voters at the individual person-by-person level. The data-driven, voter-to-message targeting effectively swung both local and national elections.
By 2006 the democrats had geared up their own microtargeting operations including Catalist - a subscription-based data-mining service for progressive organizations. In the 2006 midterm election, Catalist’s data performed well for a variety of groups, including Emily’s List, the Sierra Club, Moveon.org, the AFL-CIO, and America Votes.
Jump to the present day, and organizations like Catalist are enhancing their services further using techniques borrowed as much from the iPhone as from traditional data processing. The iPhone is special not because of what the iPhone does, but how it does it - i.e. the user experience. For Catalist, the secret weapon of the 2008 get-out-the-vote campaign will be an enhanced user experience that makes the complex task of cross-referencing voter registration information with commercial data, more intuitive and more accessible, to more people.
The “Q Tool” is Catalist’s web-based application for creating queries, cross-referencing results and exporting findings. It is intended to help campaigners do things outside their normal expertise (i.e. complex data analysis) and guide them through a decision making process they wouldn’t be able to do on their own. Yet if the application has too high of a learning curve or campaign staff run into too many obstacles, it negatively affects their experience and their relationship with Catalist.
Catalist contacted Catalyst Resources of San Mateo, CA to help them optimize the user experience for the Q Tool. At the core of the Q Tool is the ability to create complex queries across multiple variables such as managing multi-selectable voting districts/precincts/wards, depending upon the state. Catalyst Resources updated the application with an intuitive visual presentation of districts and selections as well as a map representation. Users could now quickly understand what they had selected.
Clear organization and communication of query results was even more important. Presentation determines how understandable the data is to non-experts and how easily it can be shared across an organization. A large part of the Q Tool’s value is its ability to show result sets in a customizable nested table, which can drill down all the way to an individual voter. Individual level data can be used to add people to a list who might be moved by a targeted communication. User validation testing of the Q Tool showed that the existing tabular presentation was slow and confusing to users. Catalyst Resources re-engineered the display, adding visual clues that progressively lead users through the application, as well as adding color and shading, and embedded explanatory messaging.
“The task at hand for any web-based application is to provide the best possible user experience.” said Paul Giurata managing partner of Catalyst Resources. “A good application has limited value if only a select handful of people can figure out how to use it. With Catalist, we quickly identified the scenarios that were of highest value to users and redesigned the UI so they would be prominent in the software. “
Data mining tools like the Q Tool work best when users invest time and energy. Catalyst Resources therefore updated the application’s overall look and feel to create a compelling and consistent environment that engages users and encourages them to return often to test approaches and measure impact. One future goal for the Q Tool is to create something akin to Amazon’s recommendation engine. A campaign learns that someone is interested in environmental issues; the campaign gets back to that person and others like him/her with more information and then measures whether the contact persuades them to vote. The campaign then adapts the messaging according to the analytic response.
Voter files and commercial data may be the raw material of political microtargeting, but the user interface for entering, accessing and analyzing this information is what determines its ultimate value and use. With the enhanced user interface for the Q Tool, and continually refreshed political and commercial data, Catalist will provide progressive organizations in 2008 with microtargeting capabilities on par with the Republican Party’s best efforts.
“With a sophisticated data mining engine and the right user experience for manipulating it, progressive organizations can locate supporters and predict the impact of campaign activities with a new level of precision and accuracy” said Laura Quinn CEO of Catalist.
About Catalyst Resources
Since 1994, Catalyst Resources has successfully delivered user interface and rapid application design for more than 250 software applications to leading global and VC-funded organizations. Catalyst's user-validated, agile design approach to UI minimizes financial and functional risks while maximizing dependability and user satisfaction. Catalyst Resources specializes in the unique strategy and user experience demands of Software as a Service (SaaS), Financial Services, and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Headquartered in the Silicon Valley, Catalyst Resources employs accomplished UI designers, information architects, developers and business professionals. More information about Catalyst Resources can be found at www.catalystresources.com.###
Media Contact: Paul Giurata Catalyst Resources Tel.: 650.655.6700 E-mail: