Project Overview
I built Cognivote (originally "Live Class Poll") to solve a universal problem: gathering honest, immediate feedback from groups without friction. It started in classrooms and music production workshops where I needed to quickly gauge engagement, but it's evolved into a general-purpose polling platform used for hackathons, team decisions, community votes, event feedback, and any scenario where you need real-time insights from a group.
The core insight was simple: people don't give feedback when there are barriers. No one wants to create an account, download an app, or speak up in front of everyone. But give them a QR code they can scan anonymously and instantly vote? You'll discover there are way more opinions than you realized.
What makes it powerful is its versatility combined with zero friction. Whether you're running a classroom poll, judging hackathon projects, voting on team lunch spots, collecting song requests for a playlist, or gathering feedback at a conference—participants just scan, vote, and see results in real-time. It works for intimate groups of 5 or audiences of 500, without any setup complexity.
Key Features
⚡ Five Versatile Poll Formats
- Multiple Choice — Classic polls with customizable visualizations (bar charts, pie charts, donuts, dot piles)
- Open Ended — Collect free-text responses, with optional multi-response mode for brainstorming
- General Voting — Let participants vote on a set of entries (teams, ideas, options) with configurable vote limits
- Music Playlists — Crowdsource song links (Spotify/YouTube) with built-in upvoting
- Hackathon Projects — Showcase teams with descriptions, demo links, and GitHub repos for judging
📱 Zero-Friction Participation
- Join via QR code scan or direct link—no accounts, no downloads, no sign-up
- Mobile-first design that works flawlessly on any device
- Anonymous participation encourages honest, unfiltered feedback
- Works perfectly for in-person events, remote teams, and hybrid scenarios
🔴 Real-time Everything
- Watch votes flow in live as participants respond
- Results update instantly across all connected devices
- Dynamic visualizations adapt in real-time
- Powered by InstantDB for sub-second synchronization
⏱️ Smart Timer & Vote Controls
- Optional countdown timers (10 seconds to 1 hour) to create urgency
- Configurable vote limits per participant (1-10 votes)
- Perfect for keeping momentum in meetings, classes, or events
- Timer displays on all devices simultaneously
📊 Management & Analytics
- Personal dashboard to track all your polls
- Export results to CSV for deeper analysis
- Email results directly to stakeholders
- Track engagement patterns across sessions
🎯 Built for Multiple Use Cases
- Education — Classroom engagement, comprehension checks, feedback collection
- Hackathons — Project judging with team profiles and voting
- Team Decisions — Quick polls for lunch spots, meeting times, priorities
- Events — Conference Q&A, session feedback, audience participation
- Community — Gathering input from members on any topic
- Music & Creative — Collaborative playlist building, creative feedback
🔒 Privacy-First Design
- Participants remain completely anonymous
- Only creator email stored for account management
- No tracking, no data harvesting, no surveillance
- GDPR-friendly by design
Technical Architecture
Built with modern web technologies for reliability, speed, and real-time capabilities:
- Next.js 15 with App Router for optimal performance and developer experience
- InstantDB for real-time data synchronization and presence without infrastructure complexity
- Magic-link authentication for creators (participants never need to sign in)
- Mobile-first responsive design with Tailwind CSS for universal device compatibility
- Canvas-based visualizations for smooth, performant charts that update in real-time
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI agent integration and programmatic poll creation
Impact and Real-World Use Cases
Cognivote eliminates the participation gap that stifles honest feedback and group decision-making. By removing every barrier to participation, it unlocks insights that traditional methods miss.
Education & Learning
Classroom Engagement:
- Turn silent classes into participatory discussions with live comprehension checks
- Give introverted students a voice without public speaking pressure
- Get instant pulse-checks on understanding before moving forward
- Track engagement patterns across multiple classes and topics
Teacher Experience:
- Create polls faster than writing on a whiteboard
- Get real data instead of guessing at student comprehension
- Export results for grading or curriculum adjustments
Hackathons & Competitions
- Showcase all projects with descriptions, demos, and code repos
- Fair voting with configurable limits to prevent ballot stuffing
- Real-time leaderboard creates excitement as votes come in
- Professional presentation for sponsors and judges
Team Collaboration
- Quick decisions on meeting times, priorities, or options
- Anonymous feedback on proposals without social pressure
- Brainstorm sessions with open-ended multi-response mode
- Remote and hybrid team participation on equal footing
Events & Conferences
- Live Q&A voting to surface best questions
- Session feedback collection without forcing people to fill out forms
- Audience participation that energizes presenters
- Post-event analytics for organizers
Community & Social
- Group decisions (restaurant choices, movie picks, activity planning)
- Music playlist curation with collaborative voting
- Gathering opinions from community members
- Fun icebreakers and social activities
What Makes It Work
Universal Benefits:
- Zero setup friction — Create and share in under 30 seconds
- Anonymous honesty — People share real opinions without social pressure
- Real-time energy — Seeing results flow in creates collaborative momentum
- Scales effortlessly — Works for 5 people or 500 without complexity changes
- Mobile-first — Everyone already has the device they need in their pocket
I've used this across wildly different contexts—from intimate songwriting workshops to 200-person hackathons to team standups—and the pattern is always the same: when you remove friction, you discover there are way more opinions, ideas, and insights than anyone realized. The real-time results create a shared experience that energizes the group, whether they're students, colleagues, or community members.
The platform has expanded organically based on real needs: teachers wanted better engagement, hackathon organizers needed judging tools, teams needed quick decision-making, communities wanted to gather input. Each use case reinforced the core insight: make participation effortless, and people will surprise you with their engagement.