Can user experience save elections
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This document discusses how user experience design can help improve elections. It summarizes efforts to test ballot usability with 200 voters across 4 boroughs. It also outlines how communities have supported election officials through plain language, usability testing, and information design. Finally, it encourages remembering to design ballots and election processes for all voters and becoming "democracy super heroes" through user experience work.
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Can user experience save elections
- 1. Can user experience save elections? Whitney Quesenbery Usability in Civic Life at NYC UPA World Usability Day 2011
- 2. In 2000...
- 3. "I was trying to make the print bigger so elderly people in Palm Beach County can read it. We sent out sample ballots to all registered voters, and no one said a word." Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections
- 4. 2002 2005 2008
- 5. AIGA Design for Democracy
- 6. 2010
- 7. What can we do about it?
- 8. We can run flash tests 12 UX professionals 5 democracy rights advocates 4 boroughs 1 Saturday afternoon 200 ballots Chris Fahey, Jessica Friedman, Whitney Hess, Jonathan Knoll, Michele Marut, Paul Erb, Greg Palmer, Ashley Pearlman, Mary Quant, Aaron Schwartz, Dana Chisnell, Whitney Quesenbery and the Brennan Center for Justice.
- 9. We can build communities to support election officials Illustrations Plain language Usability testing Information design Dana Chisnell, Josie Scott, Caroline Jarett, Dana Botka, Sarah Swierenga, Ginny Redish, David Rosen, Josh Carroll, Suzanne Curie, John Dusek, Gretchen Enger, Christina Syniewski, Whitney Quesenbery, and the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State: Beth Fraser, Andy Lokken, Michele McNulty, Gary Poser
- 10. We can design election laws Redesign by Oxide Design
- 11. We can remember to design for all voters Photos from AADL, HHH Center, 1 Vote 1 Value
- 12. We can remember to design for all voters
- 13. We can be democracy super heroes HT to Dana Chisnell
- 14. Whitney Quesenbery whitneyq@wqusability.com Twitter @whitneyq Slideshare whitneyq www.usabilityprofessionals.org/civiclife civicdesigning.org elections.itif.org #BReady2012
Editor's Notes
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- 2 elections.\nLooked like “oops, we forgot the usability”\n....and then...\n
- Realized that it’s a bigger problem. \nUnderstood need (sort of), but no skills to help create a good voting experience.\nLet’s look at what happened over the next 11 years [*]\n
- New law: Help America Vote Act\nNew agency: Election Assistance Commission\nNew standards: Voting system guidelines with a whole chapter on u+a (and a pretty good one)\nAnd research to document the impact of ballot design and instructions on elections. [*]\n
- AIGA’s design for democracy project was hired to create best practice templates, which are available for any ballot designer to use.\nSo... by now you might think that we’d be seeing a lot of great ballot design [*]\n
- In 2010, this is what voters in New York City were confronted with. \n[*] The part I like the best is that the instructions say to fill in the oval ABOVE the person you want to vote for. But ... they were on the back in 6 point text... so no one ever saw them. [ Hat tip to Michele Marut ]\n
- Question we have to ask is what we -- or anyone -- can do about this.\nIt’s a big, messy, dispersed system, with lots of stakeholders and no real center. \nOne answer is that we can do what we do.\n
- One Saturday in October 2010 a dozen UX folks asked 200 people to mark a ballot to see what kinds of problems they had. That data helped the Brennan Center in its advocacy for election. It was kind of crazy, but ... worked\n
- In a longer project for Minnesota we redesigned the instructions for absentee voting after challenges and recounts meant that Al Franken’s election was not decided until June 2009. My favorite part of this project: when Beth Fraser decided that she wanted a second usability test... and her office ran it themselves.\n
- One of our current projects is supporting efforts to change the election laws in NY State. Drew Davies and Oxide Design created a demonstration ballot to show what the changes would make possible.\n
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- Because, as Dana Chisnell puts it, we have super powers that can change the world.\n\nIf you’re interested - send me an email or give me your card, and I’ll put you on the list.\n
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