Projekt CH+ Games for Democracy. User-Friendly Political Self-Education through Entertainment Design

Projekt CH+ is a Switzerland-based initiative built on co-design and interdisciplinary exchange. It strives to identify new solutions at the intersection of politics, communication, game design and user experience. Together with voters, political experts and game designers we create an app which uses game mechanics to help users select their ideal candidates during elections. During the 2019 Swiss federal elections, more than 500 people participated in online surveys on feature requests for a gamified solution, which supports users in identifying political candidates that match their personal profile. This data was complemented by 15 testing sessions, where users could interact with a prototype. The received feedback was used to complete the beta-version, which was available as a web-app during cantonal elections in Uri, March 2020. During this first public field test, more than 200 volunteers signed up to test the prototype and 5 school classes participated in an A/B evaluation, where the playful prototype was compared to a traditional electoral support. This report outlines the theoretical framework at the base of the prototype, the most prominent findings of the field research and presents the CH+ Feedback Model, which lies at the centre of the design process. The CH+ app prototype and model are further developed in an iterative process from election to election.