Los Angeles County + IDEO (read more here)

Designing a revolutionary new voting system for the people of Los Angeles

My role: interaction/UX designer at IDEO

Mission: welcome everyone into a new century of democracy.

Challenge: guaranteeing every citizen the right to an accessible and intuitive voting experience in one of the world’s biggest & most deeply diverse electorates.

With nearly 5 million registered voters, Los Angeles County represents the largest voting jurisdiction in the United States. Guaranteeing every citizen the right to an accessible and intuitive voting experience has been the highest priority for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, which oversees the election process.

To revamp its antiquated voting system that dates back to the 1960s, L.A. County hired IDEO to build its next-generation replacement, a modular system that could adapt over time. And just as importantly, one that would be designed, developed and owned by the county.

Working closely with L.A. County staff, IDEO designers created a voting system that addresses the complexities unique to that voter base, including its vastly diverse population and its myriad election laws and policies. It was imperative for designers to build a system that would be useful and accessible to all types of voters: those who are vision and hearing impaired, in wheelchairs, have learning disabilities, are unfamiliar with technology, speak languages other than English – voters of all ages and backgrounds.

The goal: to create one device for equal access, to define a voting process that feels familiar to voters, balancing both emotional and functional needs, and to build a system that’s adaptable over time.

My task: designing an Interactive Sample Ballot (ISB), later branded as a Poll Pass

Hypothesis:
Allowing citizens to select their voting in a more personal and familiar environment will spur voting, and decrease time spent in polling spaces.

Challenge:

Creating a responsive site that allowed existing and new voters to access elections information and pre-mark their selection to help expedite voting as well as get more registered voters to participate in the electoral process.

**Working as a "Poll Worker" and user-testing our designs in LA.**

Note:

Existing process is not interactive. Registered user fills in a form on the LAC site and then is sent a PDF of the sample ballot in the language they requested. User then reviews at their convenience and marks up the printout and bring it to the to the polling place.

For non-english voters - they mark up in their language and then does a transfer by hand to and English only ballot.

Objective:

Create an interactive responsive site that will allow voters:

Learn about the new voting process from anywhere using web-enabled device
Premark their selections so they can easily transfer to an official ballot at a polling center
With different ranges of accessibility needs to use their assistive technology tools at the convenience of their home