The experience of a political board game.
Brief
Design an experience that addresses the democratic process.
Research Method
Literature Review & Prototyping
Brainstorm
Through discussion, we thought of a related movie the Great Hack (2019).
This is a movie about a Cambridge data analysis company, which uses data to obtain public opinion and voting preferences, and then uses these data to create means to influence the voting decisions of voters. We want to focus on the collaborative relationship between various roles. Our project is about the relationship between online social platforms, data analysis companies, political parties, and ordinary voters. And the advantages and disadvantages that the use of this relationship can bring to each of them.
Design Methods
Literature Review
We have all found a lot of relevant information on the Internet, and everyone has read several articles. Everyone sorts out important information from the literature they read.
Prototype
Based on the literature review, we came out with our current idea. We made a prototype with wire and cardboard. The four little wire men represent four parties: voter, online platform, analyst, and political campaign. The small pieces of paper hanging on the rope show their connection. The relationship between them is also written on the board below.
Interim Outcome
We use body storming to demonstrate the flow of information and money between the four.
After tutorial
With the guidance of tutors, we think about how to refine the content, add more detailed relationships between the four roles, and complicated the form.
We continue to think of a game - frustration. Frustration is a game with four players. In the game, they have a mutually restrictive relationship which is very relevant to our work.
Definition
We redefine the rules of frustration. The four players are the four roles involved in the general election (online social platforms, analytics companies, political parties, and ordinary voters). We set up a series of pros and cons of different scenarios for each role, manufacturing containment relationships between roles to restore the real situation. The relationship between different characters is displayed in the game.
Plans
We used different colours to make the wooden figures to distinguish their characters, designed the game map with cardboard, redesigned the rules of the game, and constantly tried to find suitable rules for the game.
Rules
Each player has 12 cards. Six of them are good which means the player can move forward, six of them are bad which means the player should go back.
Aim：To go around the board and back to the base before being knocked out by another player.
Objective: Knock the other players out of the game by overtaking them.
Step:
1 Roll the dice and pick the numbered card
2 Each player has numbered cards. Pick the numbered card that the dice landed on.
3 The card will tell how many spaces to go forward (or back) depending on the scenario the player faces.
Each of us chose a character and design scenarios for it. Here are the scenarios I designed for the voter.
Negative:
1 Affect by family‘s decision and do the wrong choice
When your family tell you to vote for Party A, you just agree without thinking.
2 Need is not satisfied
You hate the high rate of business tax, the Party you vote to ignore your need.
3 believe in fake news
There is fake news saying that the Party you supported is cheating the public, you believe that and give up on this Party.
4 lack of knowledge, don’t understand policies
You misunderstand the policies of governments support on education and choose another party.
Positive:
1 Be clear mind when affecting by family
When your family recommend you to vote Party A, you gather information about this party and make your own decision.
2 Need is being focused by parties
You are pregnant and you hope there are more good policies for newborn baby. This need is collected by Party A, so you vote Party A.
3 don't believe fake news
There is huge gossip news of the competitor from Party A, you judge it with a clear mind and decide whether to believe it or not.
4 Good points more than bad points
Most policies from Party A is beneficial to your daily life, only a small amount of policies have a bad effect on your life, so you choose Party A.
5 information come from many ways
When you want to know more about the Party, you find the information from many places, for example, website, newspaper, TV, radios etc.
Prototype and Test
We made a simple prototype to test the rule of the game. By trying the game multiple times and testing the rules of the game, we found the right number of steps for the game.
Visual Design
Here is the visual design of each character.
Final Product
The following shows our political board game.
The yellow wooden figure represents voters.
The blue wooden figure represents the online platform.
The green wooden figure represents analysts.
The red wooden figure represents the political party.
Bibliography
The Great Hack. (2019). [Online]. Directed by Karim Amer. United States: Netflix [Viewed 26 January 2019]. Available from Netflix.
Dommett, K. and Power, S. (2019), ‘The Political Economy of Facebook Advertising: Election Spending, Regulation and Targeting Online’. The Political Quarterly, 90, pp. 257-265. doi:10.1111/1467-923X.12687
Isaak, J., & Hanna, M. J. (2018). ‘User Data Privacy: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and Privacy Protection’. Computer, 51(8),pp. 56-59.
Cadwalladr, C. and Graham-Harrison, E. (2018), ‘Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach’, The Guardian, 17 Mar. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election
Lindholm, R. (2017) Project Alamo– Cambridge Analytica and Trumps Fake News Factory. Available at: https://semantiko.com/project-alamo/ (Accessed: 28 August 2017).
Groupmates
Tonicha
Chenguang
Yitong
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