Using voter personas to understand who is coming to your election department web site
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Transcript of Using voter personas to understand who is coming to your election department web site
Using personas to design better election web sites
@danachis
MatthewAttorney MarriedLoves his BlackberryHates emailReads NYTimes on iPadAddicted to Words With Friends
Find where to vote in the next election
EdithFollows Detroit Tigers Hates ESPN.com Loves face-to-face online
DennisBuilding contractor Cell phone is for calling home Very tuned in to current eventsSees no usefulness in FacebookRecently more absent-mindedDifficulty doing standard calculations
Jane1,000-acre farm Tweets soil chemical readings Tablet instrumented to aggregate data
Personas: Archetypal users‣ Composites of real users
‣ Function or task-based
You: designer & developerHow do you design for these people based on what you know?
Think about each of the people as you answer these questions:
What can we say about how persistent the person is?
How pro-active will this person be in solving problems?
How easily will this person become frustrated?
How tech savvy is this person?
How literate is this person in the domain?
Little data, lots of assumptions
JaneFarmer nerd
DennisFacebookwhat?
EdithESPN.com-hating Hangouts fan
MatthewBlackberry-loving St Paul attorney
How old are they?
54 83 28 60
How old are they? How educated are they?
How much money do they make?
These don’t matter.
If demographics don’t matter, what do you do?
Persona modeler
accounts for what the user brings to the design
is a framework for personas
helps teams evaluate the strength of their knowledge about users
• persistence with tech
• tolerance for risk & experimentation
• how patient, how easily frustrated
• tech savviness, expertise
• strength of tech vocabulary
• physical or cognitive abilities
Ask the right questions
•Attitudemotivation, emotion, risk tolerance, trust, persistence, optimism or pessimism
•Aptitudecurrent knowledge, ability to make inferences, expertise
•Ability physical and cognitive attributes
!
Persona modeler
Task + functionality
Find out where to voteNew to the area?
Dropping a vote-by-mail ballot? Early voting?
• Who is the most persistent when it comes to working with technology?
• Who is the most likely to experiment and create workarounds when something doesn’t work the way they expect?
• Who do you think will give up when they encounter frustrations out of impatience?
Ask the right questions
• Which one is the most tech savvy - expert? Which one strikes you as the least tech savvy?
• Which one is the most likely to call the office to help them get out of some tech pickle? Or who will call the office rather than using the web site?
• Who will have the most advanced tech vocabulary when they do call for support?
Ask the right questions
MatthewAttorney House in St Paul, marriedAssistant books reservations Loves his BlackberryHates emailReads NYTimes on iPadAddicted to Words With FriendsDoesn’t spend a lot of time on the Web Avid hiker and birderBad knees Needs Rx eyepiece for scope
!
Where does Matthew fit?
M
M
M
EdithAvid sports fanLives in Miami, votes in RochesterFollows Detroit Tigers Hates ESPN.com Loves face-to-face onlinePicked up Skype early, quickly Prefers Google Hangouts Dropped FaceTime - gestures were frustrating
!
Where does Edith fit?
E
E
E
DennisBuilding contractor in DuluthMarried to a nurseThey have 2 kids8-year-old cell phone Gets current events on the Web Sees no usefulness in FacebookTrouble sleeping, easily distractedIraq + Afganistan: Blunt Force Brain Trauma
!
Where does Dennis fit?
D
D
D
Jane1,000-acre farm in Dillworth12 different systems every dayTweets soil chemical readings Smartphone alerts from exchangesTablet instrumented to aggregate dataMinimized manual inputArthritic thumbsNeeds stronger progressive lenses
!
Where does Jane fit?
J
J
J
!
Persona modeling
M
M
M
E
E
E
D
D
D
J
JJ
How do design decisions change with these attributes?
Subtlety of affordances
Size of targets
Directness of the happy path
Feedback modalities
Labeling & trigger words
Amount of copy
Wording of instructions & messages
Subtlety of affordances
Size of targets
Directness of the happy path
Feedback modalities
Labeling & trigger words
Amount of copy
Wording of instructions & messages
1. Explain how to vote
2. Put instructions where voters need them
3. Help voters prevent making errors
4. Write short sentences
5. Use short, simple, everyday words
6. Use active voice
7. Write in the positive
8. Instructions with multiple steps should be numbered
9. Keep paragraphs short
10.Separate paragraphs with a space
Writing instructions voters understand
1. Explain how to vote
2. Put instructions where voters need them
3. Help voters prevent making errors
4. Write short sentences
5. Use short, simple, everyday words
6. Use active voice
7. Write in the positive
8. Instructions with multiple steps should be numbered
9. Keep paragraphs short
10.Separate paragraphs with a space
If you had this tool, what would you do next?
What would be different for your design?
• Designing for attitude, aptitude, & ability
• Accounting for what the user brings to the design
• Checking that personas cover the right things
Persona modeler
Persona modeler: fast way to visualize users by asking important questions
framework for talking about who users are
can tell which users might be missing
works with any amount of data
middle ground between demographics and research-based personas
Big ideas
Research commissioned by NIST
SOP and Usability and Civic Life Project
Research commissioned by NIST
Research commissioned by EAC
Field Guides series
Research partially funded by Kickstarter
Research partially funded by Kickstarter
Coming soon
Effective election department web sites
Delivering useful voter education
Effective design for vote-by-mail
Funding yet to be secured
Designing multi-language ballots
Funding yet to be secured
Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent
civicdesigning.org/fieldguides