Polling Place: A Voting Solution | UX Case Study
Story of a Non-Voter
“Did you vote?” asks your friend. You didn’t vote, but you lie and say you did because the audacity and aggressiveness of their question hints at swift condemnation if your response is “no”.
Not only did you not vote, but you have no clue if you’re even registered to vote. And if you are currently registered, is it at your parents’ address in a state where you haven’t lived in five years?
You’ve done the Google search, “online voter registration”, clicked multiple links, provided all of your information on a website, and at the end of each form you expect to click a submission button, but instead read the message, “print out the completed form and submit to your local DMV”. You don’t own a printer and you don’t have time for the two-hour nightmare wait at the DMV.
What does this all mean? You’re not voting in the upcoming election. Again.
The Challenge
What product could be built to help people (especially young people) to vote? PEW Research released a report stating that Millennial and Gen-X voters outnumbered Boomer voters in the 2016 election (69.6 million to 67.9 million voters).
Team
This project began with a team of designers that included Eric Cottrell, Chris Hogan, Libby Porter, and Johnny Price. As a team, we worked together to conduct research, develop the strategy, and define the scope. We worked individually on the wireframes and visual design of our websites.
Process
Jesse James Garrett’s 5 planes of User Experience, which includes the following steps:
Timeline
Four weeks to complete the process and design high-fidelity wireframes of solution.
Step 1: Strategy
We needed to figure out who we were designing for, their reasons for not voting, and what solution would solve their most common problems.
Reading existing research and finding out that millennial voters had the lowest percentage turnout in 2016 (49.4% of eligible voters), while being an age group that has the highest number of potential voters, we decided to gear our efforts toward millennials.
Research
To figure out the “why’s” of non-voting, we began by writing a list of assumptions and counter-assumptions. This exercise was helpful in generating survey and interview questions that would validate/invalidate our assumptions.
Street Interviews
Before sending out the survey, we hit the streets. We wanted to make sure we were asking the right questions and also gain a deeper understanding of the non- or dormant voter. Each street interview began with the following questions:
One obstacle with the street interviews trusting that everyone was being honest about voter participation. I could understand that lying could be a temptation, fearing judgment from me, or in cases where I was talking to two people, judgment from a friend.
Once I got past the initial awkwardness of approaching strangers to ask them about voting participation, I really enjoyed the conversations and important insights were gained.
The very first person I talked to was Layton. I approached him as he was setting up for an event in downtown Salt Lake City. Layton had volunteered as a canvasser for a Utah governor candidate during his 2016 campaign and shared what he learned from the experience:
Others we talked to shared a similar view, saying that they felt their non-voting friends and family didn’t feel educated on the issues and don’t want to misplace their vote. Below reasons we heard for not voting.
Reasons for not voting
I spoke to Mike, 26, as he waited for his girlfriend at the mall. He was visiting Utah from Maine and told us that his out-of-state college friends were registered to vote at their parents’ address, but didn’t bother re-registering or completing an absentee ballot because it felt like too much of a hassle. This was an important insight: millennials are nomadic, often moving states to pursue higher education or a new job and don’t take the time re-register.
Phone/In-person Interviews
As a group, we were able to conduct phone and in-person interviews, as well. We spoke to a canvasser who was knocking doors for a local House of Representatives candidate, county Republican Party Chairperson, government research analyst, and a number of non-voting millennials.
I had the opportunity to sit down with John, a 35-year-old accountant who has never voted. To his knowledge, he has never registered to vote. He expressed being overwhelmed by the process and that he didn’t, and still doesn’t, have the time, or interest, to figure out how to register. John said:
John also touched on the polarizing nature of the political discourse. He described it as “toxic” and said “with so much negativity, I kind of just bury my head in the sand”. He also expressed wanting to be able to access more balanced coverage, believing that each media outlet has its bias.
Speaking to another 25-year-old millennial, she said didn’t vote because of dislike for all of the presidential candidates. I wondered if her focus was only on the presidential race, not considering weighing in on local elections, which could have more of a direct affect on her community.
Our research ended up validating a lot of the assumptions we had going in. Some of the main reasons for millennial non-voting is:
- Feel uninformed on the issues and the candidates
- Don’t know if/where they are registered
- Feel jaded by the political discussion and media coverage
- Don’t feel like any of the candidates represent them
- Feel like their vote doesn’t matter or carry much weight
Persona creation
Based on the research, we worked as a group to create a persona to help define user goals and create an aligned focus leading into user story mapping. We introduced ourselves to Scott:
Step 2: Defining the Scope
With our persona in mind, we began user story mapping to determine the minimum viable product (MVP).
After much discussion and hashing it out as a team, we felt like we had found a strong MVP to start building. It wasn’t until I sat down to create my site map that I realized some of the features we had included weren’t necessary for our audience.
Some of the omissions included a public forum for discussing political issues, as well as a section where user could create and sign petitions. Our primary goal was to get millennials to complete voter registration and when the time comes, vote. Based on our research, reading political posts on social media discouraged some from getting involved and voting, so they would not be inclined to read the forum. In regards to petitions, it would be a leap to go from not being registered to vote to political activism.
After much discussion, as a team we put the most emphasis on the following user tasks:
- Register to vote online
- Learn about the issues being voted on in the upcoming national, and a user’s local, election
- Learn about the candidates and their stances on the issues
- Vote online
Step 3: Structure
To lock in the structure, I conducted card sorts to ensure content was being organized in an intuitive way. The results made it obvious that registering to vote and voting were the most important features and should be prominent in the information architecture.
From there, I created a site map that would be my guide as I built out the wireframes.
Step 4: Skeleton
With the site map as my guide, I began 10x10 sketching of the beginning Mobile experience first. The final deliverable was high-fidelity web wirefames, but I began by sketching for mobile first to simplify the design and ensure only necessary content and features were included. I also wanted to illustrate how the responsive design would look. This made for a smoother process when building out designs for the larger desktop area.
Takeaway from Wireframing
I spent a lot of time on my wireframes and probably included more detail than necessary, especially with the short timeline on this project. I did some usability testing to test the flow of the design, but I wish I would have tested sooner and more often. Testing is not hard to do and you can gain so many important insights observing users and hearing their feedback that will, in the end, make the final product so much stronger.
Step 5: Surface
I wanted the visual design to evoke a sense of patriotism. The red, white, and blue theme felt classic and called back to a time in the U.S. when politics seemed to have less of a negative perception than they do today. I used softer tones because I didn’t want the blues and reds to be too harsh.
I tested two different landing page imagery options: one with images that included people and the other with illustrations. Everyone of the user tests preferred the illustrations.
For the branding, I decided on Polling Place. I wanted the name to give confidence to the users that they are in the right place, as well as focus on the main goal of voting. The logo is meant to be fun and fits with the overall simplistic visual design. I didn’t want to overwhelm the audience.
Final Solution
Below are high-fidelity prototypes of the final solution and the design changes I made based on feedback from the usability testing of the low-fidelity wireframes.
Comparing Candidates
After a user provides their zip code (or logged into the site), they would see all of the office races on their ballot. They can then view candidate bios and compare candidate platforms by reading their stance on the issues.
Feedback from Usability Testing:
Based on the feedback I decided to test different options for switching the candidates to compare. One version included dropdown menus and the other included a drag and drop action. The majority of users preferred the drag and drop solution, because it allowed them to see all of the candidate options at once. However, there was a preference for an issues dropdown menu.
Final solution:
Learning About the Issues
This feature allows user to study the different issues that are being debated both nationally and locally. It includes information about issues that will be on the user’s ballot so they can be prepared and confident in their vote.
Feedback from Usability Testing:
Based on the feedback, I decided to consolidate the state-specific and national issues tables into one and give the user the ability to toggle between the two discussions by clicking on the national or state icons. The national icon would remain the same for ever user and the local icon would update based on the user’s registration address.
Final solution:
Voting Online
With the assumption that online voting has complete backing from the U.S. government, voting online would be the main reason a user would visit Polling Place. To ensure their vote is secure, I would employ blockchain technology. A user would be required to watch a video that includes an explanation of blockchain security and would then need to agree to terms before accessing their ballot. Once they agree to terms, they would then receive an access code to the email that they have registered with (animation of process included below).
Feedback from Usability Testing:
To ensure user that their vote is secure and that they don’t accidentally click on the wrong candidate, I made all of the ballot selections dropdown menus. Once a user made their selection, the “Lock Vote” button would be enabled. User would then click the button, disabling it while simultaneously enabling the “Unlock Vote” button. User cannot submit their ballot unless all votes have been locked in. I have also included one more shield screen before the ballot is submitted to give the user one more opportunity to review their ballot.
Final Solution:
After a user submits their ballot, they receive the below badge to post on their social media.
Conclusion
Much needs to happen before online voting becomes a reality. There will always be those who distrust the system and will never feel like a digital ballot submitted online will ever be secure enough. Despite the obstacles, there is an opportunity to improve the political process and provide a more convenient way for people, especially millennials, to perform their civic duty. A solution like Polling Place would offer a one-stop shop to users to register to vote, educate themselves on the issues, find the candidates that they align with, and confidently vote, giving a stronger voice to a rising generation of voters.
Key Takeaways from this Project:
- Test early, test often: the feedback I received from the limited usability testing I was able to do was invaluable. I still see opportunities to improve my design and would love to get it in front of more people. A fresh set of eyes brings so many things to light that I overlook, being so close to the design.
- Be more thorough with research: I would have done more research on Blockchain technology. It was a bit of a challenge to wrap my head around all of the information, but it does seem like a viable solution to securing an online vote.
- Consider the whole conversation: Interaction design is a conversation with the user. I could have improved on thinking around each scenario or roadblock that a user might run into, which is also uncovered with more usability tests.
Thank you for taking the time to read my case study. I appreciate any thoughts and feedback you can provide.
