Democracy During Pandemic

Addressing issues around voting, improving access during a global pandemic and into the future.

The voting system, which was already critically failing many communities even before the outbreak of coronavirus, is in need of interventions and digital services to increase voter turnout.

Company

Exploratory Project

My Role

Service Designer

Duration

December 2020 - May 2020

Contributions

Co-Creation Facilitation / Product Strategy / Multidisciplinary Design / Visual Design / Service Blueprint

Overview

Access to Voting

Voting is a citizen’s right, and being that only 55% of citizens voted in 2016, the existing system makes voting a privilege. There are several factors within the voting process that deter individuals from participating. This project evaluates the existing voting process and provides a series of interventions to address the paint points voters encounter.

Survey Data The part of the voting process 13 survey participants rated as the most inconvenient.

Research

New Yorkers Thoughts on Voting

To gather anecdotal evidence and understand the largest priority pain points in the process, 13 New Yorkers were asked a series of questions regarding their voting experience, common barriers to entry around voting, and rank the most inconvenient parts of the voting system.

Testimonials New Yorkers opinions of the voting system

“The polling places are a burden and I don’t get time off”

33% of participants ranked traveling to the polling place to be the most inconvenient part of the voting process.

“I don’t feel like my voice is being heard”

Individuals don’t feel their vote’s impact, especially at the local level, halting motivation.

“I never know anything about the candidates”

In order to make informed voting decisions a citizen must do independent research.

User Journey

Visualizing the Voting Experience

Mapping feedback from the survey data to a visualized journey of the entire voting process, I located the pain points and compared the journey of two different user types:

An individual who's familiar with the voting process and has a support network

An individual who has never voted in the past and was never introduced to the process. This map helped to determine which points of contact are in need of a re-design.

The Current Voting System A visualization of the process and highlighting the paint points different users encounter.

Personas Hypothetical user types to drive decision making when creating an inclusive voting system.

Objective

Defining Success

Answering the question: How might we provide a safe and rewarding voting experience during the pandemic and into the future? Based on the responses to my survey and the pain points highlighted in the user journey, I recognized three main areas to impact.

Remove Physical Density - Many will resort to absentee ballots to avoid the spread of COVID-19, but the mail system may be overwhelmed during the pandemic.

Improve the Ballot Experience - The ballot is much like an exam scantron and generally tailored for those with a higher education.

Limit Barriers to Entry - The voting process has a lot of friction including registering to vote, traveling to a polling place, and learning about candidates.

Co-Creation Session

Democratic Design

As a form of democratic concept generation, I distributed surveys in Pratt Institute’s student union gathering concepts to improve the voting system from a diverse set of perspectives (with the resources available). I condensed the ideas into directions.

Design Interventions

It's very clear that a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective. Several strategies were devised to address issues with existing and pandemic response voting.

Improved Vote-By-Mail Experience

A complete package with clear instructions and all tools necessary to complete the ballot and prevents the spread of the virus through distancing.

Off-Site Voting Booth

Intervening in a citizen’s typical daily commute will reduce the need to travel to a polling place and gives individuals an immediate opportunity to cast their vote.

Online Voting Platform

Votes are directly recorded without the need of physical counters which minimizes the additional steps a voter takes to request and return an absentee ballot.

Design Solution Overview Leveraging my multidisciplinary skills, I developed resolved "final" concepts for each strategy. I'm happy to share more details about each design solution upon request.

Solution Approach

Online Voting Platform

This case study highlights one of the few solutions I developed above. I designed a digital product that would allow citizens to vote remotely from their mobile device.

Information Architecture the flow a user goes through to cast a ballot, and accommodate ancillary features.

A/B Testing

Diverging Methods to Mark a Ballot

To determine the most successful approach to marking a ballot digitally, 8 users were asked to complete the voting process on two different UI directions. I monitored their completion rate, and noted their preferred direction.

Method A: Long Scroll

All positions up for election are presented on a singular frame. The user scrolls to complete the entire digital ballot.

90%

Completion Rate

Users Preferred

Method B: Frame by Frame

Each position up for election is separated onto a separate frame. The user selects a candidate for the position, then continues to the next position until the entire digital ballot is completed.

100%

Completion Rate

Users Preferred

Inclusion Standards

WCAG Compliance

To make the product easily usable by as many citizens as possible, regardless of their ability, I observed the WCAG standards and payed special attention to the following.

Provide alternative text for all content that is not text.

Information and structure must be independent from the way the information is visually displayed.

Text, diagrams, and other meaningful content should have a minimum constrast ratio of 4.5:1.

Product Walkthrough

Welcome Flow

An introduction illustrates the voting process through the app and highlights security features built in to the service to gives users a sense of trust.

Comparing Candidates

Avoid sifting through pages of articles for candidates positions on specific issues by comparing candidates policies directly in the app.

Checking Results

After the election, a user can see how their vote factored into the final results. Seeing the impact of a user’s vote can encourage them to participate in future elections.

Outcome

An Inclusive and Seamless Voting Experience

Offering other experiences and methods to vote will drastically improve voter turnout. In the current digital age, providing a cohesive service to not only vote, but learn about the candidates and check results are required to maintain voter engagement. While this case study dives into one of the solutions I developed, physical solutions were also devised to respond to those who are uncomfortable with voting via digital technology. Please reach out if you would like to learn more.