Quartz leverages Dexter to power the Bot Studio, which builds narrative experiences for messaging and voice platforms.

→ Product Design
→ Product Management

The Knight Foundation provided a grant to Quartz with the purpose of learning how bots can “better engage and inform the public and advance understanding of new technologies in journalism.” With the initial funding, the newly formed Quartz Bot Studio tested dozens of tools on the market to see which was the best for creating their products. Ultimately, they chose Dexter.

Throughout our relationship, we helped the studio power everything from in-article helpers to large scale activations for HBO.

One of my favorite projects was Electionland — a joint collaboration we did with ProPublica, Google News Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School and others to fight instances of voter disenfranchisement during the 2018 elections. The goal of Electionland was to “document, nationally and in real time, voting impediments such as long lines, harassment at the polls, changed voting locations, provisional ballot use, voter ID issues, ballot design problems and vote disruption caused by hacking.”

Using our platform, users were able to use text, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp to report any of these occurrences. The information would be relayed to local news outlets who could then connect directly to users to learn more and investigate each instance. The reporting would alert the public, allowing for swift handling of any potential issues on election day.

As someone with a background rooted in journalism, it’s incredibly fulfilling to know that a product I designed played a part in reshaping the modern media outlet. With Quartz, we created new forms of content distribution, experimented with civic engagement, explored alternative monetization approaches for the newsroom, and so much more.