Email Congress

A redesigned service

The impetus to these changes started with user support tickets - a lot of them. Users were confused and quickly frustrated with certain parts of the emailing process, including an introductory email Sunlight had to send to users in order for them to utilize the tool.

"The emails won't go through to my senators because you couldn't find my congressional district even though I am trying to email my senators."

Words and illustrations for users to easily understand

Stressing how easy the tool is to use was our top priority. The tool was created after seeing how long and difficult it is to use a legislator's web form to submit a message - our labs team created gmail addresses (and a complicated back end) to take a users message they compose in their email, skip through the hoops of the web form and landing right in the legislators inbox. Why would someone use this tool over going straight to the web form? We store your information allowing you to email your legislator while staying in the convenience of your own inbox. Explaining this process through words made for human's and illustrations to support those ideas made for a successful user experience.

"The emails won't go through to my senators because you couldn't find my congressional district even though I am trying to email my senators."

We approached this problem using design research methodologies, read more.