LazyVote launches to help cut through election information overload
NEU, digital product development studio based in Glasgow, have launched the LazyVote chatbot to help voters find out more information about the general election on 8 June.
The messenger chatbot proffers information about who is standing, whether the user is registered, which MPs are in each location, and it allows users to stamp their Facebook profile with who they will vote for.
As well as providing this data based on the user’s location, it can link to candidates' Twitter and Facebook pages, providing more information on what they stand for.
Grant MacLennan founder of NEU, discusses why he created the app and how it will encourage voters to get out there and vote on election day: “There is a huge opportunity for chatbots where a user wants a quick piece of information with very little barriers in getting it. For instance, the alternative to using LazyVote is to Google ‘who is standing in 2017 general election in X?’ You would then need to trawl through pages and pages of information, enter data and scan multiple results pages. The value of the information I’m looking for is often less than the effort I need to spend finding it.
“There big issue today in the fact that the youth are under representing themselves in elections. A generation that are used to accessing information easily sometimes find it difficult to figure out who you can actually vote for with the masses of information. Facebook is surely the way to make it easier for this target audience.”
NEU Studio is a digital product design studio based in the centre of Glasgow.