Minnesota absentee-clarity2010
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Transcript of Minnesota absentee-clarity2010
Usability in Civic Life
Minnesota Absentee Ballot InstructionsFrom recount to clarity
Whitney QuesenberyWQusability
© Whitney Quesenbery
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Usability in Civic Life
In 2000, public attention turned to the usability and accessibility of election materials in the US
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Usability in Civic Life
In 2008, another election – for Senate from Minnesota – was also the subject of a bitter, partisan recount
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Usability in Civic Life
The election was finally decided in June 2009. One of the issues in the recount was the absentee ballots.
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Usability in Civic Life
Revisions to instructions text for absentee ballots began
We were sent a copy of the marked up regulations being worked on.
We said that just fixing the language was not enough – that we wanted to work on the final materials.
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Usability in Civic Life
We started with the packets for registered voters Ballot secrecy
envelope
Mailing envelope
Voter’s certificate
Witness form
Signatures
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Usability in Civic Life
There are complexities and variationsfor different situations Voters can update
their registration
There are overseas and military voters
It all added words and clutter
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Usability in Civic Life
1. Text revisions We started from the draft rule.
Re-organized the steps into logical groups
Untangled sentences and cut extra words
And many rounds of revision
Many people contributed to the revisions: Dana Botka, Josephine Scott, Ginny Redish & others
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Usability in Civic Life
2. We added illustrations for each step We used the illustration style from Design for Democracy
to create new illustrations for each step of the process.
Christina Zyzniewski created all the illustrations
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Usability in Civic Life
3. We tested complete packets for regularand unregistered voters
Local UPA members worked with staff from the Secretary of State’s office.
They found some specific problems:Placement of the
illustrationsSteps and groupingStill-confusing text
UPA volunteers: Gretchen Enger, Josh Carroll, Suzanne Currie, John Dusek (along with Minnesota’s Beth Fraser, Andy Lokken)
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Usability in Civic Life
4. So, we made more revisions While we worked on
plain language, election law experts reviewed the revised texts for accuracy in matching the law
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Usability in Civic Life
5. And did another usability test Minnesota SoS staff
conducted the 2nd usability test, made final revisions, and prepared for public review.
The new version passed public review and was approved by an administrative law judge.
The final version was updated to meet new legislative requirements.
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Usability in Civic Life
Forregisteredvoters
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Usability in Civic Life
Forunregisteredvoters
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Usability in Civic Life
Returnenvelopeswith signaturesof voter and witness
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Usability in Civic Life
How easily can we learn from users?
Usability testingdoes not have to be formal, lengthy, or expensive.
You don’t need a formal laboratory
100s of participants
special equipment (except for your voting system)
special recording systems
Poster from Washington State
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Usability in Civic Life
Project credits Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State:
Beth Fraser, Andy Lokken, Michele McNulty, Gary Poser
UPA Usability in Civic Life: Whitney Quesenbery, Dana Chisnell, Josie Scott, Caroline Jarrett, Sarah Swierenga
Center for Plain Language: Dana Botka, Ginny Redish
Usability testing: David Rosen, Josh Carroll, Suzanne Currie, John Dusek, Gretchen Enger
Illustrations: Christina Syniewski
UPA members:
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Usability in Civic Life
UPA is an association of professionals with a mission to advance the usability profession through education, information, skill-building and improved methods and practices.
The Usability in Civic Life project promotes usability in elections, plain language and accessibility.
We mobilize usability professionals to participate in projects supporting better election design.
Projects include participation in the Brennan Center’s Ballot Design Task Force, the EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee and the US Access Board’s advisory committee to update “Section 508” accessibility regulations, and work with the Center for Plain Language.
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Usability in Civic Life
Resource for Election Officials: The Ballot Usability Testing Kit
A kit of materials to help you run usability tests with ballots or other election materials Usability Testing Ballots: What you need to know
Session script
Consent, demographics, and satisfaction forms
Report template
www.usabilityprofessionals.org/civiclife/voting/leo_testing.html
A project of the Usability Professionals’ Association Usabilty in Civic LifeDana Chisnell, Laurie Kantner, Ginny Redish, Whitney Quesenbery, Josephine Scott, Sarah Swierenga