Journal#4: Project Plan

Site Title: "What is the Electoral College?"

Developer:  Walter Shu

Focus: The Electoral College is a division of the federal government that decides every presidential election. The President and Vice President are not elected directly by the voters. Instead, they are elected by "electors" who are chosen by popular vote on a state-by-state basis (Wikipedia 2014). This means that our votes for the presidential candidates does not directly decide elections, instead our votes goes to the state electors, where they will decide who will get the state's electoral votes, based of the number of popular votes in each state. This project will focus on the functions and history of the Electoral College and the reasons why the electoral college exists in this country.

The Main Features
-Multiple chapters
-Interactive features, including videos and games
-Timeline of the electoral college
-In-depth descriptions about the electoral college
-Discussion groups
-Links to valuable resources

Content & Wireframe
Planned chapters of this project:
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - How the electoral college works and how it decides presidential elections
Chapter 3 - The history of the electoral college 
Chapter 4 - The pros and cons of the electoral college
Chapter 5 - When a president wins the popular vote, but still loses the election
Chapter 6 - The future of the electoral college - should we keep it or eliminate it?
Chapter 7 - Conclusion

Target Audience
Late high school teens (11th and 12th graders) because most California districts offer American government courses in grades 11 and 12 and is one of the courses that is required for graduation and college admittance. It will also prepare them to learn how to vote in elections when they turn 18 years old (the national minimum voting age).

Design Considerations
The design goals of this project are to better understand how the process of elections work and the importance of choosing a leader of the United States through our democratic system. Most Americans do not have much understanding about the electoral process, including the electoral college and we should learn more about the subject, because of the importance to this nation.

Limiting Factors
The limiting factor is the complex nature of the subject. I will try to simplify the subject matter as much as possible, in order to make it easier to understand for its target audience, without leaving out the most important components of electoral college.