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Design: UX/UI, Visual Design

Research: Survey, Focus groups, Interviews with concept demo

At a Glance

Poli is an AI-powered tool for political engagement, streamlining how people stay updated to encourage overwhelmed or disengaged citizens to take action on local & global issues. Poli connects users to issues that shape their everyday lives & reflect their values, making politics relevant, timely & easy to follow long-term. It brings together diverse sources, delivering fact-driven, unbiased info & flags AI-altered content for neutral information.

We designed Poli to counter the influential power of emotional reactions and misinformation currently being used in our political landscape. Poli reduces emotional burdens and empowers users with critical thinking and realistic actions to inspire hope and increase political participation.

The Challenge

Designing for political engagement means addressing the emotional, cognitive, and technological barriers that keep people from participating.

Faced with fast-moving headlines and endless updates, people often resort to surface-level engagement, leaving room for misinformation to take hold. The emotional toll is just as real. Constant exposure to negative news cycles can leave people feeling powerless and disillusioned. And as engagement-driven algorithms increasingly reward outrage and polarization, even well-meaning users can be pulled into echo chambers or misled by repeated falsehoods.

Our challenge was to design an experience that meets people where they are, minimizing friction, restoring trust, and turning emotional fatigue into thoughtful engagement.

In today's media landscape full of echo chambers, misinformation, bias & AI-generated material, Poli centralizes political sources, providing users balance viewpoints and neutral insights on policies, candidates & issues they care about. It's a single source to help them make informed choices without information fatigue and emotional burdens, fostering greater connection between personal values, civic impact & ongoing political engagement.

I don't want to spend a ton of time constantly going back to articles and seeing if an article is factual or not. It's going to be easier when it's integrated like this.

Participant from focus group

How We Did It

Research

Poli’s user-centric design was shaped by an iterative, feedback-driven process with 3 research rounds. To ground our AI-driven tool in real needs, we surveyed 90 participants to shape the initial concept based on political and media behaviors & habits. That was followed by 2 focus groups of early wireframes to define the barriers and tone of the AI presence. Once we had a direction we believed struck the right balance, we conducted 7 in-depth interviews where participants engaged with concept demos.

What we learned

Many participants engage with news to feel “in the know,” preferring quick updates that keep them connected without overwhelm. For some, the emotional toll of constant coverage leads them to skim headlines or avoid news altogether, while others treat it as entertainment but lack the bandwidth to verify it.

Some seek to be genuinely well-informed, valuing factual and unbiased sources. Yet this can lead to over-analysis or anxiety, especially given the difficulty of verifying information, even from established outlets with unclear sourcing.

There is concern over how algorithms curate news on social media and websites without transparency. Participants want more control over what they see, and note that a lack of neutrality, particularly in political coverage. Choosing sources feel like a political act.

Design

Informed by user feedback, our team designed a strategy to redefine the role of emotional indicators in news experiences, replacing prescriptive filters with transparent, user-driven tools to keep people informed on their terms. By clearly defining stress and emotional triggers, the approach fosters self-regulation while avoiding one-size-fits-all frameworks.

To strengthen trust, the design makes AI-generated summaries and their sources fully transparent, representing different perspectives across articles, addressing bias and misinformation concerns. Overlapping features were consolidated for a seamless experience, supported by a clean, accessible visual system. Consistent, neutral language and design choices help ensure content remains the focus and users feel informed without influence.

The
Outcomes

Our final Poli design brings together personalized political content, actionable insights, and AI-powered analysis into one seamless tool, empowering users with critical thinking and actions to inspire hope and increase political participation. By connecting news to tangible actions, Poli ensures that even difficult headlines feel purposeful rather than overwhelming. Designed for adaptability, Poli tailors information to individual values, balances perspectives across sources, and streamlines decision-making with features like the Practice Ballot, Daily Snapshot, and My Interests. AI tools highlight bias, misinformation, and AI-generated fakes, giving users the confidence to evaluate credibility and stay in control of their engagement.