Just Vote, WashU
NOV 2020
Integrated Campaign
St. Louis, MO
Problem
The 2020 Presidential election was fast approaching and the WashU student body needed to be informed on how and when to vote.
The 2020 Presidential election was fast approaching and the WashU student body needed to be informed on how and when to vote.
Key Insight
Almost all students at WashU were already registered to vote, but the main issue would be getting them to the polls. Especially in the midst of a global pandemic, helping students develop robust voting plans was of the utmost importance.
Almost all students at WashU were already registered to vote, but the main issue would be getting them to the polls. Especially in the midst of a global pandemic, helping students develop robust voting plans was of the utmost importance.
Solution
Our class of 12 students split into 4 groups to target the ranging needs of on-campus, off-campus, and remote learners. Cheryl Kao, Lauren Jin, and I tackled the problem of getting first years to vote. And the main way to communicate with 18-19-year-olds right now is through TikTok. Enter our voter engagement TikTok account.
Our class of 12 students split into 4 groups to target the ranging needs of on-campus, off-campus, and remote learners. Cheryl Kao, Lauren Jin, and I tackled the problem of getting first years to vote. And the main way to communicate with 18-19-year-olds right now is through TikTok. Enter our voter engagement TikTok account.
Research
In order to understand the best way to increase voter engagement in our student body, we sent out a survey to gauge the knowledge and completion of voting and registration processes. We received over 200 responses from students about what they knew and how they gather their voting and election news information. We also conducted interviews with fellow students and shared insights as a class.
Synthesis
After collecting insights from individual interviews and sifting through the data of the survey, we arranged our findings into KWHL tables in small groups. We shared these back with the class to come to a comprehensive understanding of the challenge we faced. We found that north of 90% of our student body was already registered, but they had questions about how to vote, especially during a pandemic. We also found out that many are first-time voters, and almost all students get most of their info via social media channels.
Ideation + Iteration
Once defined our main issue as getting registered voters to the polls, we also wanted to target based on location and need. So we created four subgroups of the campaign: on-campus, off-campus, faculty/staff, and remote learners. We then brainstormed ideas for each subgroup and then prepared to split off.
Prototyping + Testing
With a whole set of ideas from the class, and some generated on our own, Lauren, Cheryl, and I started prototyping how we would implement a campaign targeted at on-campus students (almost all first years). We knew first years were most easily reached on social media, and Tik Tok is their preferred social platform. So, we started writing TikToks to help them create a comprehensive voting plan. We used a 5 Es table, and class feedback to assess our prototypes along the way.
Final Product
Our final campaign brought all four subgroups together under one cohesive campaign message: “Just Vote, WashU.” The other groups created printed and digital voting plans, a google map of voting locations, zoom backgrounds, and a linktr.ee with voting resources. Together we put relevant materials from all groups into “goody bags” that were available at the mandatory Covid testing site. Our Tik Tok page received close to 2k views in just the one week prior to the election, and the campaign was featured in the school newspaper. My classmate, Amie Deng, and I presented the project at the Designing the Vote digital conference in mid-November 2020. View the presentation deck here. Special thanks to the professor who oversaw the project, Penina Acayo-Laker, and the 11 other students with who I collaborated on the campaign.
