Let’s Free Congress is a political advocacy campaign that raises awareness about corruption in Congress, and promotes the American Anti-corruption Act as a means of addressing that corruption.
The Let’s Free Congress website uses data visualizations and a scroll interaction to illustrate ideas for fighting corruption sourced from Lawrence Lessig’s work. The site is designed to tell a single story as clearly as possible, and to encourage sharing on social networks. So far, the website has reached over 10,000 people, and convinced 2,000 people to sign the petition to support the American Anti-corruption Act.
The site is part of a larger thesis investigation into the roles and avenues for designers in politics. Designers today are capable of shaping experiences and system, and reaching millions quickly through the internet. The work of designers can be entry points into understanding the complex political systems that are otherwise difficult to comprehend for the time-pressed citizenry. An advocacy piece like letsfreecongress.org is but one approach towards applying interaction to political engagement.
