Digital Divide
OVERVIEW.
r/politics dashboard is a tool that provides users with a clear, comprehensive view of political conversations happening across Reddit.
As conversations on Reddit scale, most users only see a narrow slice of discussions shaped by algorithms, personal habits, and subreddit culture. Without a tool to surface broader perspectives, users can get trapped in epistemological bubbles, limiting their understanding of political discourse.
The dashboard solves this challenge by analyzing sentiment and trends across multiple subreddits, providing a centralized view that highlights the full range of political ideologies being discussed.
Over the course of the project, I collaborated with a team to design and develop the dashboard, leading the interface design and data visualization components.
By giving users clear, actionable insights into ongoing discussions, the tool helps Reddit users gain a more complete and nuanced understanding of political conversations across the platform.
PROBLEM.
Navigating political discussions online often feels overwhelming and fragmented. Conversations happen at massive scale, but without a clear way to see trends or sentiment, users are left sifting through noise, struggling to make sense of differing viewpoints or draw meaningful insights from the data.
TECHNICAL NIGHTMARE.
Reddit's data was inaccessible, making this project a technical nightmare. We had to work around Reddit's API limitations and find creative solutions to access the data we needed.
Halfway through the project, we realized that Reddit's API was significantly restricted. This meant we had to find a way to scrape the data ourselves.
To train our sentiment model, we had to filter and organize massive subreddit datasets while preserving context. This required handling nuances like sarcasm, bias, and ambiguity to accurately analyze political discourse.
What initially felt like a nightmare became an opportunity to innovate, experiment, and push the limits of what our system could do.
DESIGN APPROACH.
To make complex political data easier to understand, I focused on minimizing cognitive load through clean, on-trend designs.
I iterated on the layout multiple times, consolidating all key metrics into a single screen so users could quickly grasp the full picture without switching between views.
Using a bento-style approach with only a few essential metrics, I kept the interface simple, intuitive, and easy to interpret at a glance.
FINAL DESIGN.
A modern dashboard that puts complex data and sentiments into the hands of users.
WHAT I LEARNED.
Working on the r/politics dashboard taught me that technical challenges are opportunities to think creatively and innovate. I learned to approach problems not as dead ends but as chances to experiment and transform complexity into usable solutions.
I also realized that data only becomes meaningful when interpreted in context. Nuances like sarcasm, bias, or tone can completely change a conversation’s meaning. Designing the dashboard reinforced the importance of balancing technical rigor with human-centered understanding to turn raw information into actionable insights.
Finally, the hackathon experience highlighted the value of rapid iteration under pressure. In just 36 hours, we created a functional, impactful product, and being recognized as runner-up in the Political Awareness and Racial Advocacy Track showed me how collaboration, creativity, and focus can lead to meaningful results in a short timeframe.