Policy Compass

Inspiration

Young people in Japan often feel disconnected from politics, seeing it as complex or irrelevant to their daily lives. We wanted to create a tool that makes politics more personal, relatable, and engaging—by helping users discover which policies and political parties align with their values.

What it does

Policy Compass is a web-based diagnostic app that asks users about their views on key issues (e.g. economy, welfare, environment). Based on their responses, it shows a visual map and a list of political parties that closely match their answers, along with links to official policy sources.

How we built it

We used Bolt.new, a no-code platform, to quickly prototype the app.

• Created 30-question diagnostic logic covering diverse political themes
• Collected and structured policy data from major Japanese political parties
• Built a matching algorithm to score user responses and map them to party positions
• Designed a clean, friendly interface for users of all ages

Challenges we ran into

• Collecting up-to-date, reliable policy data from party platforms
• Avoiding bias in how questions were worded or interpreted
• Designing a logic that remains simple and accessible, yet insightful
• Balancing clarity and neutrality in visualizing results

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Successfully created a working MVP that makes political comparison approachable
• Helped users reflect on their own values and start conversations about policy
• Designed a tool that can scale with future election cycles or countries

What we learned

• Political content requires extra care in wording and tone
• Transparency in logic builds user trust
• No-code platforms are powerful for testing civic tech ideas quickly
• UX matters even more in serious or sensitive topics

What's next for Policy Compass

• Expand to include more parties, candidates, and local elections
• Integrate with voter education campaigns and school programs
• Add multilingual support for broader reach
• Include more interactive data visualizations and personalized recommendations

Built With

• bolt