On the Fence creators discuss how they are helping to guide people towards finding their best match amongst the parties standing in the upcoming election.
Young people have rejected many aspects of party political politics and their participation rates are consistently around 30 percent below those aged over 50.
Many are not enrolled. Of those who are enrolled, barely a third vote.
Young people want dialogue, collaboration and deliberation because the Left vs. Right paradigm doesn’t work for them: they are more interested in issues, solutions and policies that are values-based.
The Design + Democracy Project at Massey University, Wellington, has been helping to address the declining numbers of young voters through design. Our aim is to be the first step in transforming young voters into more informed, confident participants in the democratic process.
On the Fence has been designed as a gameful questionnaire that asks users a series of political questions then compares their responses with the political parties’ responses to the same questions to give the three closest matches to their responses.
The user can also see the different party responses question-by-question when they scroll down on the results page and encourages users to dig deeper on these answers.
On the Fence is designed for 18-24 year olds and others just beginning their political journey. Its primary function is to spark an interest in politics, to enable young people to know where parties stand on particular issues they think important.
On the Fence is a responsive web tool that is accessible across all platforms and devices, and links up with social media. It also provides an easy step to enrol.
We would really appreciate your efforts in helping us to promote this tool, and help first time voters navigate the complexities of the electoral process in 2017, and participate.
Over 150,000 people have already played this election, you might also like to play and create and share your own avatar.