Designing for the Masses: Ballots

Josh Harbaugh — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:28:19 +0000

With elections looming, the New York Times’ recently posted an article written by the AIGA. The article entitled, “How Design Can Save Democracy” seeks to illustrate how improving the design of voter ballots might help improve the voter experience and lead to less voter error.

Here’s a composite based on 2004 general election ballots:

And here’s an example of a solution:

Is it the best solution? Probably not. Is it better than the current setup? Absolutely. One thing to really note here is how the information is dealt with in a palatable way. Everything seems logically placed in the order that you might need to refer to it. Instructions are on the left-hand side which is where most people would tend to start looking for anything since we’re programmed to read left to right, everything else is laid out in an orderly way, and the language is much simpler to understand. It doesn’t sound like a lawyer wrote it.

President and Vice President of the United States?

Simple. Done.
Definitely check out the full article at The New York Times’, because they go into much greater detail about how design-driven solutions can help voters make the right decision.

Pixelhaven Web Design | A Cincinnati Web Design Company » ballots

Designing for the Masses: Ballots

Here’s a composite based on 2004 general election ballots:

And here’s an example of a solution:

President and Vice President of the United States?