I came across an interesting interactive feature on USA Today‘s website — the Candidate Match Game.

The premise behind this feature is pretty simple. A person selects one of a few defined responses to policy questions ranging from the war in Iraq to global warming to health care. Then at the end, it presents the three presidential candidates, including both Democrats and Republicans, that match a person’s answers the most. Further, users can weight different issues more or less than others, and the feature takes this into account when presenting the three candidates.

While the programming and logic behind this probably are pretty complex, the user experience is relatively easy. The great part about this “game” is that it takes relevant data that the newspaper already gathers and allows its website visitors to interact with it in a way that makes it meaningful to them.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this game to me is that it is possible for a person to find out that their top three candidates come from two different parties. If you had some interesting combinations of candidates presented to them by the Candidate Match Game, please list them in the comments section of this post.

The Bivings Group’s Fred Thompson Disclosure