Divergent Design for Political Action
Vote Hero is, first and foremost, a way to get more people involved in the democratic process, especially local politics. The mobile app and website serve divergent purposes but the same mission: the former to streamline the registration process, the latter to provide general information about voting and how to volunteer to help others get more involved. Together they both work toward the goal of ensuring all eligible voters can and do vote.
In an absolute sense, registering people to vote and getting them to the polls would include every single adult citizen. But the college town where we did our primary testing put in stark relief the reality that young people are overrepresented among the unregistered and checked out of local politics despite being, paradoxically, broadly concerned with political issues. Vote Hero is a system for trying to bridge that gap.
I conducted interviews, made paper and digital wireframes, as well as low and high-fidelity prototypes. I conducted usability studies and iterated on designs based on those studies.
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Large scale get out the vote operations have dwindled in recent decades, and efforts to register people are often haphazard and only for a limited time. As such, there is no simple one to one comparison for how to implement an online get out the vote system. Individual political campaigns have made use of mobile app and web based systems for phone banking, and while not quite the same purpose, they have demonstrated that such methods are especially effective at reaching young people and the otherwise disaffected.
College towns, like the one where our research was conducted, tend to have a largely transient population. This means in addition to providing solid resources for a get out the vote operation, any systems that are deployed need to be simple and well adapted to a population constantly turning over.
With this need for information, logistical assistance, and generally lowering barriers to access, we designed two divergent yet complimentary systems: a mobile app for screening and registering potential voters as well as a responsive website with detailed information concerning registration, polling locations, and how to get involved to help others with the voting process.
Initial designs focused on a single form, one which called for all the salient information one would expect when filling out a paper document. Imagine bright-eyed young people with clipboards wandering around a farmer’s market or pedestrian mall. We felt as if a digital version of this method would be more than sufficient. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Freed from having to build one mode for all needs, the website focuses on informational concerns, with more in depth explanations of things that are difficult to recount in a brief, public interaction. With our core, underrepresented user in mind, we designed the site with a mobile first philosophy in mind, so that, after using the app to register, they could immediately go and acquire any logistical information they might desire.
When screening for voter eligibility there are two primary concerns: ease of use and legal requirements. Necessary information such as proof of identification and privacy stipulations need to be foregrounded, not merely to satisfy election laws but also to demonstrate to the user that your app can be trusted to give voters the access they seek as well as protect their sensitive personal data. For ease of use, a simple, streamlined user flow is the best option. Initially, we understood legal requirements primarily in terms of eligibility, but as user testing later revealed, this was insufficient.
For the Vote Hero website, rather than the linear structure the app required, a variety of different sources of information needed to be readily available. Multiple points of entry also help to make certain the user can find whatever they happen to be looking for no matter where they are on the site at any given time.
As we suspected, privacy was a serious concern for users, and, if anything, our initial design didn’t go far enough. What’s more, being put in civic mindsight had the curious side effect of making people want to know how they could help, and so, though the app is to be used primarily as a screener and registration tool, we considered what it would take to build in functionality, so that people could have access to resources on the spot about where to go to get involved. Ultimately, we decided this functionality was better suited for the Vote Hero site, since it might detract from the app’s core function.
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At the same time we prioritized a streamlined user flow, it became clear through user testing that this had to be balanced with an explicit concern and accounting for securely users’ sensitive data. So, we added several waypoints in the linear flow of the screener to remind the user of our duty to conform to all voting laws.
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Additionally, users felt more comfortable being able to enter their own personal information rather than selecting from a dropdown menu.
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Just as the app was designed specifically to facilitate voting registration, access was also the watchword for the website design. Having a responsive web design not only means we can meet the user on any platform, it also means if their first encounter with Vote Hero comes through the mobile app, then they can easily transition to finding more information online.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
uahsenaa[at]gmail[dot]com