INFO 202 Fall 08 Blog

How Design Can Save Democracy
The New York Times, August 25, 2008.

Interactive Feature: Problems/Solutions in Ballot Design

In recent years, there has been controversy about the design of election ballots that cause confusion for both voters and vote-counters. (Remember butterfly ballots?) Unfortunately, voting technology and ballot design are not standardized or consistent, and vary wildly across the country. Ignoring the whole other issue of electronic voting security, there are still many problems with ballots that use confusing language and layout, as well as have difficult to read small print. These are especially problematic for people with visual impairments or those whose first language is not English.

Fortunately, the United Stated Election Assistance Commission created ballot design guidelines earlier this year. Following a guide to improve clarity in both language and design should reduce voter confusion, and will hopefully reduce problems of vote accuracy.

Local governments often have very limited funding, and it’s challenging to design forms that are clear to the hugely diverse population of “Americans 18 and older.” However, it seems to me that this is a case where budgeting for some extra thought and effort in the initial design can prevent many problems and their related costs later.

Relates to lectures:
3. Organization {and, or, vs} Retrieval
7. Controlled names and vocabularies
12. Enterprise/institutional categorization & standards
19. Information organization in user interfaces