07 Nov 2006 1050H

American voting user experience sucks

Never let it be said that there is a day without a user experience improvement or learning.

Besides my political discontent, there is actually a huge user experience opportunity here on Election Day in terms of smoothing out the voting experience and I’m quite surprised and dismayed that we as a profession have not taken this on already. Despite its missteps on the front page of the website this morning, such as requiring registration before seeing voter polling place information and other helpful hints, the Chicago Tribune has made a graphic available on what new voting technology is being deployed today in Cook County, which the county where Chicago is located (and indeed, dominates), as well as what’s new in the six collar counties around it.

It’s surprising and dismaying because the numerous problems with these voting machines now being reported on the radio by callers, for instance, as I heard reported this morning on WBBM 780AM, and on Stan and Terry’s show on WCKG 105.9FM, could have all have been user tested and iterated through in the product development lifecycle BEFORE the tech was rolled out. And a good information architect or team of IAs/UE people might have in fact cut short the amount of repair and recode that is now necessary to fold these learnings back into the product (and the same with the old paper style of voting).

Then there are the numerous wayfinding questions. Today at the polling place, which I eventually found online, my experience was marked by not finding the right door, which was unmarked, save for a small American flag planted in the grass by the door; entering, being greeted by one of two tables, one for — I learned later — each of the two precincts that are handled by this polling place, and I happened to be at the right table, otherwise I’d have gone to the other one and sent back. In fact, there were two separate halves of the room for the two precincts, and they had separate voting booths and stations and help. (Poorly marked.) Although everyone was quite friendly and helpful, some more prominent signs and arrangement of tables, as well as voting procedures would have been more helpful. And then, finally, when I voted and handed off my ballot to the wrong precinct delegate, the processing machine at least rejected my ballot as being in the wrong precinct, but accepted my county ballot. But it was pretty regular and otherwise, outside of these notes, hassle-free and free of irregularities or political partisanship. At least not at the booth or outside or otherwise.

The good thing about this is that unlike being in Iraq or other countries in the world, I am not being bombed, shot at, or otherwise harassed for voting, and unlike my ancestors in this country, over a hundred years ago, I have the right to vote as a naturalized citizen and am not denied it on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin. In a world that is largely steeped in corruption and fraught with danger, where the mighty, the rich, and the heavily armed minority often oppress the masses, that itself is a victory, and one which we take all too much for granted in this country.

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