A Force Directed Graph for Visualization of Voters Preferences Relative to Political Parties

Abstract: As conversations in society to a larger extent are carried out on the internet, so are the civic conversations that are the basis of the democratic process. To help citizens better navigate the democratic process, several news agencies in Sweden provide a version of Valkompassen, the election compass. The intent behind Valkompassen is to give the normal reader an easily understood answer for which party they are most aligned with on 25 questions relevant for the election. This paper suggests an alternative information visualization based on a force directed graph of the results from Valkompassen (developed by TT Nyhetsbyrån). The affordances of a force-directed graph make it an interesting option due to its ability to display specific questions in an intuitive way and aesthetically pleasing way on a two or three dimensional plane not restricted to a political left-right axis. The results of this study suggest that the average citizen might not be familiar with the force directed graph as an information visualization tool but that they felt confident in using it after a few minutes of interaction. Most participants in the study did experience seeing their political sympathies spread across the political left-right divide and found the graph informative for exploring individual questions. The report did not however find that the alternative graph replaced the original Valkompassen in experience provided. The discussion contains some recommendations for how to facilitate the learning curve and proposals for how the artifact could better make use of the affordances of the force-directed graph in the future.