Minnesota absentee-clarity2010

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Usability in Civic Life Minnesota Absentee Ballot Instructions From recount to clarity Whitney Quesenbery WQusability © Whitney Quesenbery

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Transcript of Minnesota absentee-clarity2010

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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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In 2008, another election – for Senate from Minnesota – was also the subject of a bitter, partisan recount

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The election was finally decided in June 2009. One of the issues in the recount was the absentee ballots.

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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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We started with the packets for registered voters Ballot secrecy

envelope

Mailing envelope

Voter’s certificate

Witness form

Signatures

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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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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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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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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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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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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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Forregisteredvoters

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Forunregisteredvoters

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Returnenvelopeswith signaturesof voter and witness

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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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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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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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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