Interactions - September/October 2009

experts, language translators, and cultural experts may need to be recruited to augment existing election production teams—or at least to inform state and county ballot templates. Given the complexity and stakes of election design, it will be most effective for local jurisdictions to join forces with experienced contributors who are well versed in advocating for user (voter) needs while understanding administrative and technical constraints.

Applying the Guidelines

The official EAC-Design for Democracy partnership concluded with the establishment of pragmatic election design guidelines and samples, and their distribution to 6,000 election officials in January 2008. Yet, given the local constraints associated with election design, these tools are far from self-service, especially where ballots are concerned. Design for Democracy has continued to assist with distribution and adaptation of the national guidelines through several ongoing efforts.

For instance, AIGA established an Election Design Fellows program in Oregon and now also Washington. Through funding from HAVA, Design for Democracy recruits and mentors these term communication design staffers as they adapt and apply the national guidelines in accordance with legislative, technical, and budgetary requirements in their respective states. Design for Democracy also provides and presents a shortened set of design guidelines intended for state and county election offi-

cials who do not have access to professional design and usability guidance; officials in Texas have experienced tangible improvements by applying just some of these guidelines to their commonly used election forms. And Design for Democracy collects before and after examples where counties have had success improving their ballot and election materials; these case studies help demonstrate the value of engaging in election design, share successful approaches to making incremental improvements, and expose the limitations and the range of current election systems.

Additionally, the program engages in ongoing advocacy work focused on systemic change. Since the EAC project, Design for Democracy has had more success in talking directly with manufacturers of election equipment, such as Hart Intercivic and ES&S, which have shown genuine interest in raising the bar on election design. And we have tried to reach national and state legislators by distributing the book Design for Democracy: Ballot and Election Design and contributing to other advocacy resources, such as the Brennan Center for Justice’s “Better Ballots” report.

Certainly, Design for Democracy’s guidelines for the EAC are not an end point. The guidelines are grounded in current voting technologies that continue to evolve. Their focus is almost entirely on the polling place, and they do not address the full complement of voter touchpoints and potential alternative voting experiences. Some additional research has been

conducted resulting in EAC reports on poll-worker training (which has critical impact on the voter experience) and alternative voting methods, as well as a Nielsen Norman Group report on election websites for the PEW Center on the States. Even with these steps, more work is needed from the design and research communities as well as from government and private industry. AIGA Design for Democracy will remain involved in election-design reform for the long haul, helping to ensure that citizens are rewarded for participation with convenient, clear, and trustworthy voting experiences and election results that accurately reflect their will.

Acknowledgements Thank you to the dedicated election officials who make voter experience a priority despite many competing demands and to the heroic project team members who entrusted me with their story. Please see our EAC project case study at www.design-fordemocracy.org for full acknowledgements and sources.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Friedman Hewitt is
managing director of AIGA
Design for Democracy,
which demonstrates the
value of design by making
critical civic interactions more understand-
able, efficient, and trustworthy. She also
runs the initiative’s ballot and election
design program, helping states, counties,
vendors and legislators use AIGA’s election
design guidelines. Previously, she directed
user experience research and design
teams in the agency world, provided user
interfaces for emerging software solutions
at IBM, and cochaired Chicago’s SIGCHI
chapter.