CREDIT: MIGUEL BARBOSA
Pollenize provides information about six main candidates running in the Canadian election. All users have to do is click on one of their faces and are instantly provided crucial information to help them vote.

A new user-friendly smartphone application is making information about the 2015 Federal election accessible and easy to understand for all voters.

Pollenize provides voters with all the information they need to make an informed decision, and considering how the Canadian voter turnout rate in the last election was only 61.4 per cent according to Statistics Canada, anything that gets more voters to the polls is a good thing.

“We wanted to make it easier for people to access all of the information necessary to make an informed decision in an election,” said Pollenize co-founder and Fanshawe graduate Trevor Blades. Pollenize lead product designer Marvin Sanchez studied Interactive Media at Fanshawe as well.

Blades said the team identified a problem when it came to informing Canadians about candidate stances. The main problem came from the fact that important information was sometimes hidden in the middle or scattered across dozens of news articles or were loaded with political jargon. Pollenize collects all the information and puts it together in one easy-to-use app.

“We cut out all of the useless stuff and find what the point of the article actually is and get it to people in a clean and really easy to understand manner,” Blades said.

The main page shows colourful illustrations of six main federal candidates: Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair, Justin Trudeau, Elizabeth May, Gilles Duceppe and even Independent candidate Tim Moen.

By clicking on each illustration users can find out each candidate’s stance on important issues including the economy, the environment, immigration and healthcare.

Each segment is followed by a “read more” option where users can learn about the specifics of the candidate’s stance as well as a “show sources” option. This way users know the app is not playing favourites with any candidate.

“We tell our people what our sources are so if they want to go and fact check, they have all the necessary tools to do so,” Blades said.

Blades said design was a huge focus for the team because it doesn’t matter how useful your app is; if no one can use it it’s rendered useless.

“You could have the best, most concise information in the world, but if it’s not presented in a way that’s easy to use and people can understand right away then it’s all for naught,” Blades said.

Pollenize statistics show that the app has been installed over 7,400 times and has reached over 100,000 unique users.

The most relevant statistic shows that users spend an average of over nine minutes per session when using the app. This proves that users are actually taking the time to read the information provided.

Pollenize is a free app available for both Android and iOS and online at pollenize.org. The 2015 Federal Election is on Oct. 19.