Analysis of the functionality and usability of the Politibot’s online visualizations

Abstract

This article collects the results of an investigation focused on the startup Politibot, a chatbot or conversational bot specialized on political contents, which turned on in Spanish during the electoral campaign of June 2016 on Telegram, that also offers to suscriptors interactive and multimedia data visualizations of data and an analysis of the voting intention based on sociological studies.

Taking as starting point previous works on Politibots that shows to what extent users distinguish and value the news on bots, as well as the experience of consumption by the audience (Sánchez, H. and Sánchez, M., 2017), in this study we combine techniques of research such as direct observation and analysis on data visualization through the case study method. It is investigated about its tipology and tematic and it is considered several journalistic, aesthetic and formal parameters which affect to its functionality and potential usability.

It is concluded that the visualizations, as graphic and audiovisual interactive formulas, meet the journalistic objectives, favor the understanding of the information and the aesthetic functionality and propitiate the customized use and interaction of the users.