2010 Infomation Booklet Report

Seeking the divide between effective political communication design and an apathetic voting demographic. -Designing a Students Guide to Voting for the Local Body Election

325 Report-

By Dominik-Peter (Niko) Elsen

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Political Communication is something local body politicians do badly.(Kate Wilson 2010)

For all the rhetoric, the promises and the thousands of dollars spent onadvertising these politicians that are geographically the closest to us are in many ways the most disconnected from us. Their pamphlets are “yuk”, their posters are “really really bad” and their websites even remind us of “an adult friend finder profile” (Focus Group Discussions. July 2010)

There is of course a clear reason why our council and mayoral candidates seem unable to coherently communicate their brand and campaign image – as local politicians they sit on the lowest representative rung of our democracy and have neither the financial nor volunteer support, unlike others higher up the political ladder, to call upon.

But should they then be expected to compete in a world where everyone who wants our attention, money or electoral support seems happy to pay for it?

A good proportion of the candidates think not. They feel that the “pretty pictures and glossy stuff of the campaign” is just “puffery” anyway and that voters have got “to do their own research and take an interest” (Michael Guest 2010).

The problem with putting this onus back on voters however is that even if a voter is not one of apathetic ones and is in fact interested enough to try and seek information out, the reality is there is very little “useful” or “engaging” information available- because the candidates in the first place believe it is largely not there job and that voters just “need to take and interest”… and so this war of passive attrition cycles on.

There is of course also a responsibility on the local media also- to champion voter’s information needs. Yet once again those that are unlikely to vote are the very same demographic unlikely to read the local rag which prompts the paper to continue with its rhetorical blurbs and sepia toned candidate photographs.

And so we have our problem.

For the apathetic disenfranchised voter-No one fosters interest. No one seeks interest. No one is interested. But for a city like Dunedin these are in fact the most important voters.

Not only are there a lot of them(upwards of 50% who don’t vote), but they are also largely from the 18-24 age bracket and thus represent the missing component in a city that although youthful in numbers, is bereft of the rejuvenation and representation of a whole generation- namely it’s students. Who live in but not with their fellow urban southerners .

Of course they still love their city, and most of them are politically engaged enough to know “they hate the current council and the shroud of stagnation it brings with it” . Most of them are probably even aware that the election is on with 97% of eligible voters able to claim they know “there is a local election on” .

Yet when it comes to knowing who the candidates are, who they like and then actually voting, all too many become lost in a web of indifference, incompressibility and distraction in a world of a 1000 other priorities.

And so our problem has become a design issue.

If the very structure that is supposed to encourage those to vote (namely the modern campaign) is failing half of its intended audience, the whole approach of how we are getting information about candidates to voters, and particularly young voters, must be looked at.

This project seeks to develop and test at least one attempt to try and remedy this problem. Hereafter follows my initial research, methodology, development and results of the visual Mayoral candidate display for students voters that I put together for the 2010 Dunedin Local Elections.

Foreword

left: A typical example of Local Election candidate information.

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Content and Concept Design-Framing what is wrong and what is neededIn working out exactly what form my project would take it was important to first turn to some literature and research around the topic to back up my own thinking. Although there are of course many reasons and theories as to why voter turnout is diminishing in all New Zealand elections, I knew from my own previous study that the clearest and most significant reason that people don’t vote is, as discussed already, simply because of a lack of good information.

Why they don’t voteThe 2007 Local Government New Zealand Election survey proved my hypothesis by showing that the greatest response of those who don’t vote is “Didn’t know enough about the candidates / not enough information” with almost 30% of respondents answered as well as a further 18% who “weren’t interested” – arguably because there isn’t enough information available.

However it is important to distinguish that it is not the saturation of information which is lacking. Almost 87% of the non-voters in the local survey say they have still seen some information which in turn proves that it is what the information is and how it is presented that is the real issue.

Contrast these figures with the 2008 General Election Voter satisfaction Survey, where the “quality of media coverage and advertising by candidates

is considerably high”, the ‘not enough good information’ concern amongst non-voters dries up. Instead at national level the main reasons people don’t vote is because of ‘had other commitments’ (17%), ‘had other work commitments’ (10%), and ‘I forgot’ (9%).

In short young voters at a local level need a better way of finding who is who.

What exactly non-voters and students don’t like about local election candidate informationWith little research in New Zealand done on the topic it was then important for me to look abroad where a number of studies highlight some further clues as to the nature of local body campaign communication for young student voters.

One researcher of San Diego California in particular found after a number of focus groups and survey tests some extremely relevant findings that were carefully considered throughout the project.

In brief, Dr Lauren Movius found that voters between 18-28 overwhelmingly considered the following important • Participants from the outset are less likely to engage in communication

which is in a visually unappealing format.• Candidate information must be brief and to the point.• Information about an issue to be neutral and transparent.• Candidate Statements, blurbs and descriptions are strongly disliked and

considered “staged” across multiple formats.• Debates are seen as the most useful way of deducing information and

perspectives • Participants prefer new technology, such as on demand, interactive

internet sources or TIVO, to retrieve information after becoming engaged in the first instance.

• Marketing of these online or interactive communications in the first place however are essential; voters will not seek them out.

Research

Below: 2007 Local Government NZ Election Survey

Below: Election material from the top 4 polling mayoral candidates

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What they would like to seeFrom this list, in a separate study I conducted, I held a small focus group discussion to check whether this was also the case for Dunedin’s young people but also to try and frame what, if anything, my set of “young apathetic voters” found important for them to make voting decisions on.

On the 11th July 2010 I met for 2 hours with 3 vary patient students where I showed them what a typical campaign usually gave them, and to canvas what they thought of it all. In short, what they felt matched strongly with the Movius report.

• Campaign material had to be brief, well set out, and highly visual. Whether it came from the paper or straight from a candidate.

• They needed it to catch their eye in the first instance and seem interesting and relevant enough to them in the second instance to keep them reading or listening.

• Campaign information they thought was relevant included • Picture• Profile (general info name, age, experience etc.) • Political flavour ( as related to national politics)• Professions (over there life time)• Policies• Priorities• Preferences (on young people’s issues)• Personality• Practical skill (as financial governor)

Further to this, one particular point of discussion interested me. An extract from the Focus group transcript;

“what the respondents felt they really needed and it seemed that the most effective way of doing this was to, at least as Libby said “have something in the paper where it was like a double spread of every one standing on all the issues” but as Elita said “they have that already…its kinda lame…I’d want it even more simply laid out like this is what the issue is and they’re listed and then for each person it’s like either for it or against it or their thoughts and policies about each issue that they would change. “ Although significant discussion followed as to the accessibility of anything like that particularly at local level “…I’m not sure how they should go about it at all”(Tom).”

Thus it was from these considerations that I started to piece together something which attempted to acknowledge both the main problems and the needs of an apathetic voter.

Right: McCandless’s Left vs Right shows a political visualisation of ideas

Right: McCandless’s Information is Beautiful TED Talk

Aesthetic and Visual Design-What it should actually look likeBased on a TED talk given by David McCandless, I was also very aware of the distinction between visualised quantitate information and visualised qualitative information. Yes I wanted the display to be based on normative info graphic style however with the addition of some descriptive text in a supportive and quantifying role.

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Initial Musings

Throughout researching both politics and design I have realised one thing is clear-People love looking at things… even for only a brief moment… and then curiosity, if well fostered, will take them further.

One can see this both in the simple impact that effective billboards and hoardings have on election results, and through the complete fascination that info-graphics and similar design outcomes can hold even over the most boring subject matter.

Taking this idea into account was at the heart of my thinking for the substantive part of this project- to develop an exhibition style display to profile the candidates for students in the upcoming local elections.

It of course needed to take into account a number of things to work effectively

•The type of information that would attract and help student voters •The type of information that would suit candidate’s approval and ability to be provided•How this information would be collected•How this information would be visualised and presented

Thus before interviewing candidates all these aspects would need careful consultation and planning.

Consulting on the information

OUSA (Student Union) SupportAs a first step in setting the project rolling I decided it was best to find the support of an organisation with an interest in the same purposes I was aiming for. This was not only to organise a partner with which to liaise and refine my designs but also to give the project a sense of legitimacy and reason- for both approaching candidates with and for the purposes of displaying something in public without it appearing too “random”.

I initially toyed with the idea of wider organisations such as Elections New Zealand, the DCC itself or even the Otago Museum but concluded that the Student Union seemed not only the most workable option but also the most relevant.

On first contact they delegated the idea of my project to General Executive officer Imogen Roth, who happened to be organising a number of other on campus initiatives to raise the youth vote. Imogen was extremely supportive and thought the concept, although rather vague at that stage, was a great idea and vowed to help in any way she could. She said that the Union, amongst other things, could organise a space in the link area, possibly provide a number of giant pin boards and could also authorise and sponsor the display in its name.

Department of Politics I also chose to work with two experts in the field of political communications and in particular local election campaigns. Otago University lecturers Dr Janine Hayward and Dr Chris Rudd provided an experienced and insightful perspective into what was relevant to ask candidates and what they would feel comfortable asking. They also noted that they felt it was perhaps slightly unrealistic, given the amount of time till voting closed and with the limited one-man-band of resources I had, to focus on the 7 mayoral candidates rather than the 47 central ward council candidates that I was initially interested in profiling also.

Design DepartmentSeparate from my weekly meetings with Dr Mark McGuire, who provided consistent advice and development feedback to the overall design and concept, advice and perspective was also gained through meeting a number of other design department staff. Scott Savage, Grant Baxter, Kylie Paterson and Michael Findley gave significant feedback on a variety of the projects elements.

Methodology

Below:early process work planning.

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Collecting the information

Finding a way for me to collate what could potentially be a large and at times disparate amount of information was an important part of the workability of the project. Not only were candidates hard enough to get hold of, their time during the campaign was precious and in short supply. Further to this I was aware that holding the amount of information to a minimum was likely to be much more of a problem than not getting enough information. So the medium for recording and collating the info was vital.

Internet/Email Based Survey MethodsI first looked at a number of internet applications which could ask a variety of question types via email or linked question pages. My initial thinking was to simply email this to all central ward and mayoral candidates and then simply have an excel spread sheet of responses. In looking more closely at what these services, such as Surveymonkey.com, Surveygizmo.com and GoogleDocs Form builder offered however, it started to become clear that being restricted into these “quantitative questionnaires” would give me the wrong type of information altogether.

Yes I wanted to break down what the candidates were standing for into something easily comparable. But this did not just mean making them into numbers and figures. – as the McCandless film had pointed out infographic information could easily represent ideas also- so in a similar vein the method of collection should perhaps also be slightly more interactive and disscussive- these were politicians after all.Secondly an email system, although initially simple and easy to administer, also had the potential to become even more time consuming later on -in following up and checking complete and correct information. Further to this email also has the capacity to be easily ignored if too time consuming- a factor which in the middle of the campaign with the information I was seeking could very well occur.

Manual and iPad CollectionCreating separate interviews with each of the candidates then seemed the most logical option. It would allow me to discuss clearly and directly the information I was after and why it was important. Taking notes with the backup of sound recordings although somewhat double handling would probably work the simplest, yet it still wouldn’t really give me the mix of form and fluidity I was after.

So as somewhat of a technological compromise I decided to a have look at what other perhaps mobile technology could help. I thus hired, with the help of an educational research discount, 2 months of use of an Apple Ipad.

With the help of the both the iForm App and the PollDaddy App it turned out to be the perfect tool. It allowed me to enter both quantitative and qualitative info, customise it on the go if I needed and then sync it straight into my InDesign templates ready for my adaption and checking over against the sound recordings.

Above: the IForm App and the customised form I enterd the data with

Below: the Apple Ipad was extremely useful as an interactive survey and interviewing tool

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Administering the Interviews

Firstly I approached the seven Mayoral candidates with the email seen on the right. It detailed who I was, what I was doing and basically what I wanted from them ie and an interview time. For the purposes of transparency I included a sample of the finished product with explanations of what I wanted.

Surprisingly not one candidate chose to email a reply, but instead all seven called my phone to make a time- confirming my suspicions that, even the younger candidates preferred to talk rather than type.

During the week of the 27th September I visited each of Dunedin’s 2010 Mayoral Candidates with some interviews only taking the requested 15 minutes (Jimmy Knowles) others lasting more than an hour (Peter Chin) or even two (Lee Vandervis).

Candidates were given a sample prototype board of the display to directly see what their responses would turn into and would then proceed to work through the information as I entered the data and discussed and refined responses with them.

The majority of the candidates could not have been more obliging and gave for the most part well-reasoned answers and responses that to my surprise worked almost seamlessly with the format- a concern that I had had having seen them largely respond with inflated rhetoric and somewhat imprecise responses in most other forums of the wider campaign.

While one candidate even went so far as wanting to employ my services for the next election, the incumbent candidate on the other hand throughout the interview did express some concerns (see Development section). In summation however the interviews went smoothly and successfully yielding a good return on the consideration I had put into the organisation.

Dominik-Peter Elsen <[email protected]>

OUSA Mayoral Candidate Profile for StudentsDominik-Peter Elsen <[email protected]> Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 9:04 PMTo: [email protected], [email protected]

Dear Mr Cull

I appreciate this is probably the busiest week of the campaign and you are probably being pulled left right and centre but just wondering if you couldstill spare 15 minutes of your time sometime this week?

As detailed further below I am working with OUSA to help display information about the mayoral candidates for students right outside the centrallibrary. I know there is a lot out there already ...but I do just need to run a couple of questions past you to make sure you are happy for it to bedisplayed.

This is all for free and for the purposes of getting you into students minds as well as providing the often apethetic students with somethingcomparable to vote on.

If you want more information on what we will be displaying scroll further below.

To make a time between now and Friday please reply to this email or phone me on 0277238032, just fifteen minutes is all that's needed- anytime ofthe day- anywhere.

Regards

Dominik (Niko) Elsen

Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work you are putting into campaigning and enthusing Dunedin voters to take an interest in their great city!

The OUSA is mobilizing and doing everything it can to encourage particularly the student populous to get out there and vote over the next couple ofweeks.

In addition to tomorrows debate and the Critic's coverage we are putting together 7 massive(A1 approx) visual profiles of the mayoral candidates tobe displayed right in the centre of campus, outside the library entrance in the link, completely for free with the single purpose of getting studentsfamiliar with their candidates views in a clear and comparable way.

We have been able to source most of the primary information from the ODT profiles and other similar coverage (such as photos, age, ticket, broadpolitical description and profession) but we want to check this over with you as well as getting your opinion on three other questions that wewill display, as the diagrams included below show.

We realize the next few weeks are extremely busy for you but if you could please make a time with Niko (the project co-ordinator) to hold abrief (15 minute approx.) interview to gather this info, it would be much appreciated.

The display will be authorized by Harriet Geoghegan OUSA President to comply with the relevant legislation.

Kind Regards

Dominik (Niko) Elsen

Election Mayoral Candidate Profile for StudentsProject Co-ordinator

Below are a number of examples of how and what information will be displayed (example info is fictional)

The 5 Questions we need your responses to during the interview will likely include

1. In 10 words or less please describe yourself politically.Eg As shown in Italics and quote marks below (all other information has been collected already)2. Please Rate the Precious Councils workOut of 10

Above: A sample of the email I sent to candidates

Left: My diary of the interviews week.- Busy Stuff.

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Taking into account the considerations of my research as well as a healthy dose of intuition on the task at hand, I had in mind a fairly clear concept of what the final outcome might look like.

As a workable prototype it would focus on the content of the mayoral candidates only and the needs of the apathetic-yet-potentially-interested-student voter firstly. The display would take place most likely in the link- outside the entrance to the library or perhaps parallel with the main walk way itself. It would consist of 7 large panels positioned side by side for easy comparability. Viewers should be able to view panels both as a whole piece to gage primary interest or assessment and as each individual panel to ascertain closer detail.

Each panel would ideally include•Full Name of candidate•Ticket or Independent declaration•A photo •Their age •Their previous council experience•Their previous campaign experience•A quote to some up their campaign •One “fresh idea” or policy they would like to introduce•The top three ways in which they have been involved with the community •A timeline of their occupation and vocations•A political compass•A diagram of their priorities relative to others•A voting record or reflection on the major council decisions of the past term•Whether they were simply for or against a number of student issues•A pie graph analysis of how they would alter -how each 100 of rates is spent and borrowed against.

And with this in mind I began to piece together the initial draft.After taking this stage around my relevant consultants for feedback- I had a large number of aspects to reconsider.

First off it was clear that the panel had too much information fighting for attention. There were too many disparate information pieces that were not grouped, divided or ordered with any particular coherence. The eye had to have somewhere to look first and then know without thinking where to go next. In addition to this the colours, although engaging on first glance, quickly became irritating and confusing. There were a number of similar but not identical tones, colours were used multiple times throughout the panel but for no reason and altogether simply gave a fruit salad rainbow effect that left viewers wondering why. Furthermore shapes, icons and more generally the style of text and geometry could have been better coordinated to ease the eye.

The overall size and shape of the panel also needed to be better considered with a mind to perhaps the whole display side by side. As far as the content was concerned the politics advisers were keen to point out that although some of the questions would be fascinating to find out and display, the reality was that during the campaign for the purposes of informing voters, candidates would never commit to a number of questions. The political compass, voting records and rates/spending analysis in short had to go and for most students would probably just clutter there understanding anyway.

Development

Right; The first printed draft of my panel; Nicknamed Fruit Salad.

Peter ChinIndependent

Age 69

Current MayorCity Council HistoryDunedin City Council Ran 3Served 3

Occupation HighlightsOtago Boys Highschool

Otago University LLB

Gallaway Cook Allan Lawyer

Lucas & Lucas Lawyer

Web Farry Legal Consultant

Dunedin City Councillor

Dunedin City Mayor

How he would divide up each $100 of your rates

Freshest New Policy Idea

Political CompassTop 3 examples of involvement in the Community

What Student Issues he Would Support Better Council Regulation of

Houses and Flats against the cold.

All students having free access to

Dunedin buses.

Allowing bars to stay open until

5pm.

Allowing the Undi -500 to return as a liscensed event.

Movement Towards free Wireless internet throughout the inner

city.

Supporting OUSA against VSM.

Website None

FacebookNone

TwitterNone

Dunedin City MayorRan 2 Served 2

Build a New Community Pool

10 years on the Dunedin Operatic Board of Trustees

Instigating Band Rotunder in the Botanical Gardens

Volunteer for Child Cancer Daffodil Day

Priorities

Keep Rates Low

Reduce Council Debt

Improve Core City Services

Encourage Environmentally Sustainable City

Foster Arts and Heritage

Investment in New Major Development Projects

Improve CouncilConsultation

Improve CoreCommunity Services

High Priority

Low Priority

$ $

For each $100 of rates we pay he would like toIncrease them to

Decrease them to

For each $38 the council plans to borrow per every$100 he would like to

$113.91

$31

13%

18%

Building Projects and City Marketing

Water, Rubbish and City Planning

Roads and Parking

Enforcement

Museums, Libraries and Art Gallery

Pools and Parks

Corporate

Housing

Civil Defense

$45.21

$9.46

$5.93

$1.62 $0.05

$1.43

$19.53

$30.68

1

2

3

10 Desi 325 Report

The second development took into account many of the firsts considerations and criticisms. It resulted in probably the largest refinements and most notably the change of shape. Four main blocks were also identified and highlighted with background grey tone shading used to subliminally divide.

The student issues section was given much greater prominence with its on visualisation and icons as well as room for a twitter sized quantification. Amongst other things however, the main criticisms of this draft were still the use of colour. Although the disparity had largely been resolved the application of certain tones to certain pieces of information (namely a scale of colour for the priorities section and why the green?) could have been even further refined.

Size, hierarchy and alignment issues also began to rear their head. The titles namely needed to stand out more.

The third set of developments took place in consideration of the actual information having been collected and assembled at which point the panels were printed out and viewed collectively for the first time. Immediately issues of hierarchy, tone and colour arose.

Some of the text became hard to view against certain shades and the background grey gave a considerably dampening tone to the whole display. Shapes surrounding the “Independent” ticket information were seen as simply additional “visual waffle” while use of ‘blank space’ suddenly became much more important.

The sliders in the priorities section however copped the greatest flack and needed to be harmonised with other graphical elements within the piece namely along a horizontal scale. This also helped divide the space more evenly across rough thirds and took an over accentuation off the priorities section.

Peter ChinIndependent “Steering Dunedin above and

beyond the political divide”

LifeTimeLine

Otago Boys Highschool

Otago University BANEV Normal School

Research Worker

Community Development Officer

Dunedin City Councilor

AgeCampaigned

Won and Served

Views Previous Council’s Work

Priorities

High Priority

High Priority

Low Priority

Bigger CouncilSmaller Council

Low Priority



Reduce Council Debt

$

Improve and Restructure

Transport System

Cut Council Costs

$Investment in Devel-

opment Projects




Keep Rates Low

$

What Student Issues he Would Support DCC Regulation of Houses and

Flats against the cold.

DCC Subsidisation of free transport for

students on Dunedin buses.

Supporting bars to stay open later and in student friendly areas .

Allowing the Toga parade and

Welcoming ceremony to return as a

licensed event.

Movement Towards free Wireless Internet throughout the inner

city.

Supporting OUSA against the

Governments VSM plans.

VSM

Welcom

e!

?“There is much more we could do for the city’s houses. People should never be cold in there own homes”

“As long as it is part funded with Uni and OUSA also I think it would be a great initiative”

“Not prepared to comment as I see it as a Central Government Issue”

“I believe the council has been lenient enough on this issue”

“They had their chance for that” “Definitely moving towards a similar outcome is essential for the city”

4 times for City Council

2 times for Mayoralty


1 time for City Council

78

Poor Great

Website None

FacebookNone

TwitterNone

The Full development; From Left to Right

Draft 2; with the addition of blocks, colour swapping and much much more general refinement

Draft 3;with more colour swaps, repo of contact info, addition of priorities tone scale and minor layout adjustments

Final Copy; standidisation of priorities sliders allowed for one last tidy up.

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Joe BloggsIndependent “Steering Dunedin above and

beyond the political divide”

LifeTimeLine

Otago Boys Highschool

Otago University BANEV Normal School

Research Worker

Community Development Officer

Dunedin City Councilor

AgeCampaigned

Won and Served

Views Previous Council’s Work

Priorities- How he would prioritise the main issues of this election

High Priority Lower Priority



Reduce Council Debt

$

Improve and Restructure

Transport SystemCut Council

Operational Costs

$Investment in Development

Projects




Keep Rates Low

$

What Student Issues he Would Support DCC Regulation of Houses and

Flats against the cold.

DCC Subsidisation of free transport for

students on Dunedin buses.

Supporting bars to stay open later and in student friendly areas .

Allowing the Toga parade and

Welcoming ceremony to return as a

licensed event.

Movement Towards free Wireless Internet throughout the inner

city.

Supporting OUSA against the

Governments VSM plans.

VSM

Welcom

e!

?“There is much more we could do for the city’s houses. People should never be cold in there own homes”

“As long as it is part funded with Uni and OUSA also I think it would be a great initiative”

“Not prepared to comment as I see it as a Central Government Issue”

“I believe the council has been lenient enough on this issue”

“They had their chance for that” “Definitely moving towards a similar outcome is essential for the city”

4 times for City Council



1 time for City Council

78

Poor Great

Website www.joebloggsformayor.com

FacebookNone

TwitterNone

12 Desi 325 Report

Design Issues – What I would change. Section by Section

Photo and Profile

Although mainly the nuts and bolts of any profile I would have liked to have seen this basic information more visualised. A political compass would have been incompatible however an overarching graphic of some form would have added to the basic comparability and understanding of each candidate- something I felt was missing and wasn’t achieved by this section particularly the ten word quote which despite candidates’ best efforts really didn’t capture the essence of their campaigns. The resolution of the photographs was perhaps my biggest over sight, I assumed that these would be plentifully available on the internet but in hindsight should have endeavoured to take my own.

Timeline

While the timeline proved to be one of the more successful elements of the profile there were a number of issues that would help its form if reconsidered. The basic problem was that although they appeared a useful comparison, because of age discrepancies, with some candidates 3x the age of others, the timeline did not offer apples with apples. Secondly to this is that had numeric

values or at least the years attributed to each been shown this would have eased the disparity. However candidates were reluctant to be pinned down and although they were specifically asked did not provide dates or years. Using logos or graphics related to the separate time frames could have added to this also.

Priorities

To a large extent I was reasonably satisfied with the priorities section and personally found it the most useful and informative element. However consideration and thought must be given to Mr Chin who felt that some of the diagrams in expressing the priorities of the election were framed in a way that made it “difficult for him to answer”. After lengthy discussion in which I insisted that I was not attempting to ‘pin him down’ or ‘pre-judge’ him in any way he surprisingly apologised and proceeded to answer cooperatively if somewhat vaguely the rest of my questions.

However what seemed to emerge was a sense of frustration not so much at the questions themselves but at the fact that I had based them on the fellow council candidate’s priorities. He felt that the vast mix of what they had wanted was inherently contradictory between such items as increasing investment, reducing debt and keeping rates low and thus represented the naivety and inexperience of many of the candidates as simply out of touch with the realities of council. This point for me however only reiterated the importance of the “priorities” exercise. The reality of the campaign and the democratic process is that the priorities of candidates and councillor are inherently contradictory- and that is something the Mayor has to work with. Getting the potential mayor to declare how he would do that is what I was wanting to show in a comparable and digestible format- at too a large extent felt this was achieved.

Results and Conclusions

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Student Issues

The greatest concern of this section for me was the spacing and layout. I felt that this could of perhaps been resolved by culling two or three of the issues such as the wireless question which was largely a moot point-As this was the request of OUSA however perhaps alterations to size would have been most appropriate.

Measuring the Usefulness of the DisplayAnalysis of the display in the link itself was based on two sets of data collection- a viewer’s survey and a two hour social behaviour analysis.

SurveyUsing the iPad and the PollDaddy Application we asked 80 respondents who had spent significant time reading the display what they thought of it as they began to walk away. Through 5 simple multi-choice questions a number of interesting results were found.

Below;The display in the link Right: the Poll Daddy Survey

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Survey Results- Sample group 81- 46 Male 35 Female

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Social Behaviour Analysis

Over a two hour period between 10am and 12pm on Thursday the 7th of October notes of the displays use were taken and identified the following broad trends.

Using a stopwatch the display was being viewed by at least one person for 87 minutes of the 120 minutes.(NB- although this is considered to be a busy time of the day for foot traffic.)

Approximately 116 people viewed the display by stopping for longer than a second, and the large majority who stopped looked for longer than a minute.

Users were nearly all students with only 7 seeming to be staff or lecturers (on rough assessment).

Most viewers looked at the display singularly by themselves, however up to 8 people were seen viewing the project at one time.

Other Observations

In addition to this the display itself attracted a number of candidates placing their election material on the displays supporting table, an area that avoided the patrol of student union cleaners, and thus provided a secondary use as an environment for freedom of political information- something that would work in considerable harmony with the neutral nature of the project.

Furthermore an article in the local newspaper the Otago Daily Times and mention in the student magazine Critic added significant support and interest in the project, proving the need and workability of such information.

Conclusion

Measuring the success of the project was always likely to be relative in nature. Although it would have been desirable to have the project accessible across multiple platforms such as the internet, print (Critic was very very interested but limited in timing and space) and possibly a number of separate locations -resources and time constraints were limiting factors. Similarly it would have been desirable to include the “lost 40” Central ward council candidates as originally intended. On balance however for the outputs that were presented I was largely satisfied with the response.

It is of course hard to tell whether the project made any real impact on the results or election turnout by itself, but important to note that this was not directly the intended outcome. What is clear however is that there is definitely a need and furthermore a capacity for a similar approach to information communication in local elections as shown in this project. Potential voters and particularly young voters thrive on comparable, neutral but most importantly well designed and interesting information- and this is something candidates and campaign managers can no longer take for granted.

Above: The panels displayed on the final pin board display.

2010 Infomation Booklet Report

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Transcript of 2010 Infomation Booklet Report