ervey.nyc work me

ervey.nyc

the spark


In June of this year, I went to vote in the NYC Primary Election fully confident in my choice for mayor. I consider myself politically engaged and well-informed. I had done my research, paid attention, and walked into the voting booth without hesitation… until I looked at the ballot.

Suddenly, I was faced with races I hadn’t even heard about. What is a comptroller? What does a borough president do?

I didn’t have the time to research every candidate, and the information available online was confusing and scattered. Most civic engagement websites lacked depth and usability. I realized that if navigating the ballot was this difficult for someone like me, someone who actively follows politics, it must be even more inaccessible for others.

And the most frustrating part? These lesser-known positions are often the ones that directly impact our daily lives. That’s when I knew I wanted to build something to fix that.

the problems


1. Voting is confusing.

2. Most people don’t know who their local politicians are.

3. There’s a lack of accessible civic engagement tools.

4. Election information is fragmented and difficult to navigate.

5. The two-party system oversimplifies political identity.

6. Political ideologies are nuanced, not binary.

7. There’s no accurate or multidimensional way to score politicians.

8. Many voters rely on popularity, not shared values.

9. People are voting without context.

10. Propaganda fills the information gap.

the solution


a bipartisan civic engagement app designed to help voters make informed decisions. The app uses a three-axis political spectrum with 27 possible archetypes to map a user’s political identity. It then matches them with candidates and elections based on location, showing alignment between personal values and political platforms.

scoring logic


3 Axis: Economy (Public Investment vs Free Market), Liberty (Libertarian vs Authoritarian), Society (Progressive vs Traditional). Each axis goes from left to right (-2, -1, 0, 1, 2).

9 Initial Questions, Q1-Q3 = Economy, Q4-6 = Liberty, Q7-9 = Society.

27 Archetypes ({economy score}, {liberty score}, {society score}).

Answers from 9 questions create a color scoring grid (Dark Blue = -2, Light Blue = -1, Cream = 0, Orange = 1, Red = 2).

In order to stay up-to-date, a category is chosen by random every day (ex: Society) and then a quiz in that category is created (3 questions). If it’s Society, the answers would affect Scores 6-8 in the user’ score array.

features


political archetypes/scoring grid

daily quiz

local elections/personalized ballot/matches

friend compatibility

project link →

project:
mycitizen us

type:
ios app

role:
product designer, developer

skills:
storytelling, ux/ui design, mobile app development

team:
solo project

date completed:
october 2025

timeline:
4 months