In 2021 YP2LE conducted a survey to generate a snapshot of youth civic engagement and trust in their ability to contribute to change in their communities. The results corroborate my own impressions from my time with a cultural association: young people are eager to participate in local life but struggle to coordinate effectively, as well as to navigate relations with the older governing class.
7000 participants
Aged 18 to 35
Across 10 countries
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
Purpose & Actionability
These two themes emerged time and time again during my interviews with five youth. Social passivity seemed to stem from a fundamental lack of awareness rather than indifference or disenfranchisement. Three main pain points were highlighted:
Out of the loop
Citizens simply don’t have an efficient way of following the launch and development of all community projects in their area.
Lack of agency
Young people feel their voice isn’t always heard, and would like an equitable system of pitching, evaluation, and contribution.
No oversight
Once the initial excitement wears off, many initiatives lose forward momentum and ultimately fail to take off altogether.
.1
.2
.3
.webp)
Communities need direction
The YP2LE survey clearly showed that citizens engage with their local political landscape mostly through relatives, friends, and neighbours. Social platforms should further strengthen and expand these connections, so why are young people struggling with this?
An examination of some popular networking solutions made it clear that social media and meet-up apps excel in manufacturing excitement for a new initiative, but this very strength of theirs is what holds projects back: as comment sections flame up and new ideas fly around, core tasks are neglected until the hype dies out.
A digital space where contributors can browse, join, and start community-led projects, as well as easily manage teams & tasks, build roadmaps, and leverage group consensus to ensure an organic and democratic development of the initiatives.
True North
Building personas and their user journey afforded me a stronger sense of direction throughout the project.
At this stage my focus was on information hierarchy + scannability. Browsing citizens need to be able to tell at a glance what an initiative is about, why they should care, how many people already care, and how they can help.
See more
Unmoderated, 15-20 minutes.
Italy, remote.
4 professionals, aged 21 to 29.
Browse a list of available project, join one and vote on a proposal.
Assess the clarity and actionability of the prototype's IA.
User testing pinpointed some impractical IA choices. I sorted participants' comments in an affinity board and derived some prioritised points of action from it.
Emotions & Reactions
Navigation & Interaction
Information Architecture
Custom set of glass icons with glowing selector.
Fitting
The Pieces
This was the project that taught me to trust the data. My previous experience with local initiatives helped me frame and digest the foundational research, but it also caused me to come to Flockwork with some preconceived notion of what it should be. Intuition is a wonderful thing, but it isn't of much use if it doesn't align with the problem statement.
1. LinkedIn integration was beyond the scope of the project, but it would make for a valuable feature, allowing tailored roles and recommendations.
2. A direct channel to officials and documentation would address the core pain point of difficulty navigating the bureaucracy of project approval.
hello@calo
amico.com
