Usability Testing in Local JurisdictionsDana Chisnell
From a talk I did with Whitney Quesenbery and Jenny Greeve at EVN 2011 on working inside local elections departments. Ballot design, usability testing, and plain language FTW!
IACREOT - Plain language for voters and poll workersDana Chisnell
This talk covers guidelines for writing plain language instructions on ballots and clear information in poll worker manuals. It also talks about common ballot design problems and wraps up with information about usability testing using the UPA LEO Usability Testing Kit.
Usability Testing in Local JurisdictionsDana Chisnell
From a talk I did with Whitney Quesenbery and Jenny Greeve at EVN 2011 on working inside local elections departments. Ballot design, usability testing, and plain language FTW!
IACREOT - Plain language for voters and poll workersDana Chisnell
This talk covers guidelines for writing plain language instructions on ballots and clear information in poll worker manuals. It also talks about common ballot design problems and wraps up with information about usability testing using the UPA LEO Usability Testing Kit.
This is a presentation I did almost a year ago as part of the Election Assistance Commission event in August 2011 - Design Counts in Elections - EAC Roundtable Discussion
(http://www.eac.gov/design_counts_in_elections_-_eac_roundtable_discussion/)
Presentation to the Committee on Future of Voting: Accessible, Reliable, Verifiable Technology at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM)
Slides from presentation "How to Use Data for Effective Community Communication" by Courtney Williamson, Marjan Van de Kauter and Keara Dennehy at State of the Map US in Virginia, Richmond on June 9, 2023
Access is a matter of good design. A review of some best practices in civic design and plain language for complex issues and apply them to ballot layout, the electoral process, and voter
communications to demonstrate how good design and use of plain language are crucial to ensuring voter access.
Presentation at the National Disability Rights Conference, 2016
With Kathryn Summers
Kathy Henderson as the Ward 5 Councilmember is a firebrand and an independent leader. She has chosen to forgo the ANC 5D spot and focused on the development.
As a practice, UX is confused about what is a short cut, what is a convention, and what is a best practice. Fortunately, the process on this project revealed where all of those were broken for the target users: people with low literacy.
This is a presentation I did almost a year ago as part of the Election Assistance Commission event in August 2011 - Design Counts in Elections - EAC Roundtable Discussion
(http://www.eac.gov/design_counts_in_elections_-_eac_roundtable_discussion/)
Presentation to the Committee on Future of Voting: Accessible, Reliable, Verifiable Technology at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM)
Slides from presentation "How to Use Data for Effective Community Communication" by Courtney Williamson, Marjan Van de Kauter and Keara Dennehy at State of the Map US in Virginia, Richmond on June 9, 2023
Access is a matter of good design. A review of some best practices in civic design and plain language for complex issues and apply them to ballot layout, the electoral process, and voter
communications to demonstrate how good design and use of plain language are crucial to ensuring voter access.
Presentation at the National Disability Rights Conference, 2016
With Kathryn Summers
Kathy Henderson as the Ward 5 Councilmember is a firebrand and an independent leader. She has chosen to forgo the ANC 5D spot and focused on the development.
As a practice, UX is confused about what is a short cut, what is a convention, and what is a best practice. Fortunately, the process on this project revealed where all of those were broken for the target users: people with low literacy.
Counter to intent: Voters' mental models of alternative counting methodsDana Chisnell
Here I talk about some preliminary findings from exploratory research about whether voters encounter problems using ballots that include contests that are counted in non-traditional ways.
California's top lessons learned in design and languageDana Chisnell
Introducing the Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent through an analysis of classic ballot design issues and the California top 2 primary ballot in particular.
This is a talk I gave for the first time at UPA Boston in May 2012. It's about a model I've been using to understand users for several years. What will you do with this tool?
Technoblade The Legacy of a Minecraft Legend.Techno Merch
Technoblade, born Alex on June 1, 1999, was a legendary Minecraft YouTuber known for his sharp wit and exceptional PvP skills. Starting his channel in 2013, he gained nearly 11 million subscribers. His private battle with metastatic sarcoma ended in June 2022, but his enduring legacy continues to inspire millions.
Book Formatting: Quality Control Checks for DesignersConfidence Ago
This presentation was made to help designers who work in publishing houses or format books for printing ensure quality.
Quality control is vital to every industry. This is why every department in a company need create a method they use in ensuring quality. This, perhaps, will not only improve the quality of products and bring errors to the barest minimum, but take it to a near perfect finish.
It is beyond a moot point that a good book will somewhat be judged by its cover, but the content of the book remains king. No matter how beautiful the cover, if the quality of writing or presentation is off, that will be a reason for readers not to come back to the book or recommend it.
So, this presentation points designers to some important things that may be missed by an editor that they could eventually discover and call the attention of the editor.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitabilityaaryangarg12
In today's digital era, the dynamics of brand perception, consumer behavior, and profitability have been profoundly reshaped by the synergy of branding, social media, and website design. This research paper investigates the transformative power of these elements in influencing how individuals perceive brands and products and how this transformation can be harnessed to drive sales and profitability for businesses.
Through an exploration of brand psychology and consumer behavior, this study sheds light on the intricate ways in which effective branding strategies, strategic social media engagement, and user-centric website design contribute to altering consumers' perceptions. We delve into the principles that underlie successful brand transformations, examining how visual identity, messaging, and storytelling can captivate and resonate with target audiences.
Methodologically, this research employs a comprehensive approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. Real-world case studies illustrate the impact of branding, social media campaigns, and website redesigns on consumer perception, sales figures, and profitability. We assess the various metrics, including brand awareness, customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue growth, to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.
The results underscore the pivotal role of cohesive branding, social media influence, and website usability in shaping positive brand perceptions, influencing consumer decisions, and ultimately bolstering sales and profitability. This paper provides actionable insights and strategic recommendations for businesses seeking to leverage branding, social media, and website design as potent tools to enhance their market position and financial success.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
Maximize Your Content with Beautiful Assets : Content & Asset for Landing Page pmgdscunsri
Figma is a cloud-based design tool widely used by designers for prototyping, UI/UX design, and real-time collaboration. With features such as precision pen tools, grid system, and reusable components, Figma makes it easy for teams to work together on design projects. Its flexibility and accessibility make Figma a top choice in the digital age.
5. Top 10 design principles
Use lowercase letters Use accurate instructional
illustrations
Avoid centered text
Use informational icons (only)
Pick one sans-serif font
Use contrast and color
Use big enough type functionally
Support process and Decide what’s most
navigation important
Use clear, simple language
4
6. Ric Larry Dana Dana
Grefe Norden Debeauvoir Chisnell
AIGA Brennan Travis County,
Executive Center Texas
Director Senior Counsel Clerk
5
24. Join our
projects
AIGA Design for Democracy
UPA Usability in Civic Life
21
25. Dana Chisnell
dana@usabilityworks.net, @danachis
Ric Grefe
grefe@aiga.org
Larry Norden
NordenL@exchange.law.nyu.edu
Dana Debeauvoir
(512) 854-9188
22
Editor's Notes
Thank you for coming to the most important panel in the Free World. \n\nHow many of you have voted in an election in the past 12 months ?\n\nFor people from the US, how many of you have ever worked an election as a poll worker or observer? \n\nGreat. We’re talking to you. \n\nAnd, we’re talking to you people who have NOT been involved in civic design before. Stay with me. \n
3:31\n\nTHIS is the form - and a ballot is nothing but a form - that changed the world. \n\nIt is the ballot used in Miami-Dade County in the US presidential election in 2000. If you wanted to vote for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, which hole do you punch? A lot of voters in Florida thought it was the second hole. It’s not. It’s the third. \n\nThere are all kinds of design problems with this ballot. Many were caused by one little change that was made with the best of intentions. The person who designed this ballot wanted to increase the types size for her on average elderly voters. \n\nThe effect flowed the candidates to an interlaced, butterfly layout across a two-page spread. \n\nThis well intentioned but uninformed design decision was crucially important to where we are in the world TODAY. \n\nThis design mistake and dozens like it on ballots across the US that we don’t talk about meant that the margins -- the difference between the lead vote getter and the next vote getter -- was tiny AND disputable. In this case, the dispute was ended by the US Supreme Court when it stopped the counting and declared George Bush the 43rd president of the United States. \n
3:33\n\nHere’s a similar ballot, using the same technology, from Cook County, Illinois. On the left is the original design. It has condensed type in all caps, and the dominant feature is YES and NO with their hole numbers next to the candidate names. In this case, we’re voting on whether to keep these judges in office. \n\nMarcia Lausen redesigned the ballot to correct the visual hierarchy to emphasize the candidate names in the example on the right. It’s easier to read, Easier to line up. Easier to see what you’re voting on. And there are instructions, exactly where and when you need them. \n
3:34\n\nFrom her work with Cook County and a large project taken on by AIGA’s Design for Democracy project for the US Election Assistance Commission came some key findings from researching voters and observing people in usability tests. \n\nThey are these: (reveal) \n\nThey seem obvious, don’t they. As designers, we work with these basic heuristics every day. But they weren’t obvious in 2000 to the people who were designing ballots. And these people (gesture to the panel) are going to tell that story and the story of elections since. \n\nWe’re going to discuss why it’s so difficult to design a usable ballot that any voter can easily use to vote the way she intends. We’re going to talk about the state of the art, who designs ballots, and what’s going on to improve ballot design. We’re also going to talk about how each one of you in the audience can join the movement for better civic design. \n
3:35\n\nMeet our illustrious experts. \n\nFirst, Ric Grefe is the executive director of AIGA and the current head of the Design for Democracy project. \n\nLarry Norden is a civil rights lawyer and senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. \n\nDana Debeauvoir - the star of our show - is the county clerk for Travis County, Texas, which also makes her the head of elections there. You’re all in Travis County right now. \n\nI’m Dana Chisnell, your moderator and lead guitarist. \n\nThank you all for being here. [PAUSE]\n\nI’ve been working in civic design for about 8 or 9 years. When I tell people that I specialize in voting and election design, the first question I always get, usually with an exasperated whine is...\n
3:36\n\nWhy is this so complicated? Why is it so hard to design a usable ballot?\n\nOther countries pull this off much more gracefully than the US. What’s the big deal? \n\nLarry, what’s the history here? (States’ rights, legislation at the state level) \n\nRic, why is it so bad that design is legislated? Doesn’t that actually make it easier to impose consistency? (Laws are old; probably trying to solve some problem that shouldn’t be solved that way.) \n\nDana, what are the logistics you face in administering elections? (EMSs, filing deadlines, ballot styles, etc.) \n
3:46\n\nStaying with Dana for a moment -- you’ve gone through some major technological changes in the election department. Tell us about what it’s like making that transition. \n\n[Follow up about the effect on poll worker training; press fallout; recounts; security questions. ] \n\nLarry, you’ve been working with New York state on their transition from mechanical lever voting machines to paper-based optically scanned bubble ballots. The lever machines presented some technology problems, but it seems like the voters of New York experienced new, unexpected problems with the new systems in the last couple of elections. What happened? \n\nRic, I know that when the best practices for election design were released, the voting system manufacturers resisted. The voting system vendors don’t seem that interested in good design. What’s the problem there? (They’re coming around now, but at the time...) \n
3:56\n\nSo, why isn’t this room full of people who design ballots, or do interaction design for electronic voting systems? \n\nDana, tell us about who designs ballots and what the challenges are - what it’s like for those people. \n\n(Larry and Ric, please chime in to the discussion with your experiences working with local election officials. Any specific anecdotes would be great.) \n
\nAh. But. The people designing ballots are not designers. They’re not UXers. They’re not IT people. \n\nWho designs ballots? \n\nCounty clerks or registrars or people on their staffs. \nOR their voting system vendors. \n\nThey are mostly women. \nSome have been elected. Some have been appointed. \nThey are clerks or registrars, many of whom have responsibility for vital records, deeds, and other paper that the county cares about, which means she also, traditionally, gets elections.\n\nThey are excellent public servants, who are usually highly skilled at public administration. \n\nThey are not designers.\n\nAnd remember, their back-end systems are REALLY hard. Those systems don’t talk to Indesign. \n
\nTo give you a picture of just how big this community is... [READ first bullet]. I once taught at a convention of election officials in Texas where from 62 counties there were 450 local election officials. That’s just who showed up. \n\n\n[Talk / read] \n\n\nSo, they’re not trained designers, though many more are learning these days. Or they hire designers to be on their staffs. But because they are good public servants, they are very concerned about costs. \n
\nTo give you a picture of just how big this community is... [READ first bullet]. I once taught at a convention of election officials in Texas where from 62 counties there were 450 local election officials. That’s just who showed up. \n\n\n[Talk / read] \n\n\nSo, they’re not trained designers, though many more are learning these days. Or they hire designers to be on their staffs. But because they are good public servants, they are very concerned about costs. \n
\nTo give you a picture of just how big this community is... [READ first bullet]. I once taught at a convention of election officials in Texas where from 62 counties there were 450 local election officials. That’s just who showed up. \n\n\n[Talk / read] \n\n\nSo, they’re not trained designers, though many more are learning these days. Or they hire designers to be on their staffs. But because they are good public servants, they are very concerned about costs. \n
\nTo give you a picture of just how big this community is... [READ first bullet]. I once taught at a convention of election officials in Texas where from 62 counties there were 450 local election officials. That’s just who showed up. \n\n\n[Talk / read] \n\n\nSo, they’re not trained designers, though many more are learning these days. Or they hire designers to be on their staffs. But because they are good public servants, they are very concerned about costs. \n
4:06\n\nWhat’s the state of the art? What’s being done to make election design better? \n\nRic, tell us more about Design for Democracy and the result of the project for the Election Assistance Commission. \n\nLarry, the Brennan Center issued a report a couple of years ago looking at ballot design as the possible cause of close margins. What was the impetus for that project? \n\nDana, what’s happening at the county and state level in Texas that you think is improving design for voters and poll workers?\n
4:16\n\nLet’s look at some real examples. Before, with conventional design, and after with at least some of the best practices applied. \n
Larry, this comes from the Better Ballots report. Tell us about it. \n
Larry, this comes from the Better Ballots report. Tell us about it. \n
Larry, this comes from the Better Ballots report. Tell us about it. \n
Larry, this comes from the Better Ballots report. Tell us about it. \n
Larry, this comes from the Better Ballots report. Tell us about it. \n
Larry, this comes from the Better Ballots report. Tell us about it. \n
Dana, you have a story about this ballot from Sarasota County in 2006. \n\nThis is an electronic voting system, right? \n\n(Larry, chime in.) \n
\n
\n
\n
Larry, here’s a later Sarasota ballot, from 2010, right? Learned their lessons from the electronic system, did they? What’s the story here? \n
Larry, here’s a later Sarasota ballot, from 2010, right? Learned their lessons from the electronic system, did they? What’s the story here? \n
4:20\n\nRic, what would you say are the most important lessons here? \n
4:22\n\nWhat can the people in this room do? \n\nI urge you to take action. Get involved. When you leave this lovely bubble of Austin and South By, do SOMETHING. \n
Sign up to work elections as a poll worker.\n
If you find that you want to represent a party or an organization, sign up to be an official observer. \n
You can also call up your county elections department and volunteer to proofread materials. This will give you some exposure to and insights about the process. \n\nAnd you could truly help the department prevent errors that are very difficult to catch. \n
\nWhen you vote, ask to use the voting system for people with disabilities. In Travis County, everyone uses the same voting system. But most voting systems in most counties are not universally usable. There is often a stigma attached to using the system. If more of us used the system, the stigma might be released and poll workers might be better trained about that system. \n\nJust plan for voting to take you more time. \n\n\n
After the session, see me, give me your contact information and we’ll add you to these cooperative projects being done by AIGA and the Usability Professionals’ Association. \n\nWe do things like hold flash usability tests of ballots pre-Election Day. \n
4:24\n\nQ&A? \n\nThanks to the panel, Ric, Larry, and especially to Dana for being here. \n\nAnd thanks to all of you for coming and caring about the greater good. \n