Research useful for civic and elections design is scattered into many different disciplines, from political science to computer science to work on design, reading, and accessibility. The Civic Design Bibliography brings this work together in a collection of material the most relevant research from all these fields with detailed abstracts for each … Continue reading
Experiences as a poll worker in New York City. Continue reading
In 2010, New York State used paper ballots for the first time. Unfortunately, a NY League of Women Voters survey after the election found that many voters found the ballots hard to use because of small text, missing instructions, weak separation of contests We’ve created a design concept for a … Continue reading
There are great lists of guidelines and tips for writing in plain language, but when you are faced with making confusing instructions clear, where do you start? One way is to think about plain language as a process. Instead of trying to get the whole thing right in one try, … Continue reading
At the annual gathering of county clerks, recorders, election officials, and treasurers, the closing keynote featured tips on how writing that everyone can understand can help officials do their work better, and save their budgets at the same time. Whitney Quesenbery’s presentation featured examples of improved materials from form letters … Continue reading
The business of trying to design better elections has it’s ups and downs. What’s going on in New York State is a good example. Good news. In 2010, New York State switched from lever machines to paper ballots. Bad news. The ballots were, to put it mildly, difficult to read. … Continue reading
A group of user experience (UX) professionals grappled issues surrounding design for civic purposes in a workshop: “When the Audience is Citizens,” conducted at the User Experience Professionals’ Association’s 2012 annual conference this June. The group gathered to share the common challenges and enablers that are unique to the world … Continue reading
At the CHI 2012 conference in Austin, Whitney joined Janice Tasi, Ben Bederson, Lorrie Faith Cranor and Herb Lin for a panel discussion – Occupy CHI! Engaging U.S. Policy Makers. Lorrie Faith Cranor, from Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab, offered advice for anyone interested in getting involved in policy issues. Most of the audience worked … Continue reading
A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice concludes that in 2010, tens of thousands of votes in New York did not count because of errors — errors that can be easily caught or prevented to ensure that ballots are marked according to the voters’ intent. They are overvotes–when … Continue reading
On a Saturday in October 2010, a group of Usability in Civic Life volunteered went to five locations to run a flash usability test to learn how New Yorkers marked their new optical scan ballots, especially looking for a kind of error called “double voting” (voting for one candidate under … Continue reading
The NYC UPA World Usability Day 2011 featured a series of presentations around Designing for Social Change. Whitney Quesenbery looked at how usability and design can be the super heroes of civic life…and everyone can make a difference. Slides and audio from the presentation (with transcript).
The Plain Writing Act of 2010 goes into effect on October 13, 2011. This law requires the federal government to write all new publications, forms, and publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner that follows the best practices of plain language writing. It may not be a tough … Continue reading
In the 2008 election for Senator from Minnesota between Al Franken and Norm Coleman was decided only after a lengthy recount and legal battle that lasted over 8 months. One of the biggest controversies centered on absentee ballots and deciding which of them were even eligible to be counted. A … Continue reading
It’s always nice when we can connect two issues – like plain language in ballot instructions. In a new report for NIST, Ginny Redish draws the lines clearly: “Voters are exercising an important right as American citizens. If they cannot understand how to use their voting materials, they may not … Continue reading
At the UPA 2008 Conference in Baltimore, Annetta Cheek, Chair, Center for Plain Language, gave of presentation on the connections between usability and plain language, with examples of plain — and not so plain — language from federal documents. If you can’t understand it, you can’t use it (ppt 238K) Introduction to … Continue reading
At the UPA 2008 Conference in Baltimore, Karen Peltz Strauss, of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications, gave of presentation on telecommunications accessibility and policy for people with hearing disabilities. She described different access options as well as US laws and regulations. Access to telecommunications and US telecommunications policy for … Continue reading
Ginny Redish is one of the internationally recognized experts in plain language, gave a seminar for members of the federal advisory committee updating US accessibility regulations (Section 508). She covered: What is plain language? How can plain language be used to improve the usability of regulations Examples of plain language … Continue reading
Whitney Quesenbery chaired a panel at at a joint ITU and G3ICT Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. The forum, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities for ICT Standards. The panel on “Human Interfaces; design for accessible ICTs” looked at recent evolution of accessibility features and standards, standards … Continue reading
As part of the public review of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG), the EAC held a series of public roundtable discussions and public hearings. Usability in Civic Life leaders were invited to the Usability and Accessibility Roundtable on March 27, 2008, and the Public Meeting on April 16, 2008. … Continue reading
Dear Senator Akaka and Congressman Braley, The Usability Professionals’ Association supports efforts to encourage easier access to government by all citizens. One way to achieve this is through greater use of plain language in all government communications. We commend you for introducing H.R. 3548 and S.2291 The Plain Language in Government … Continue reading
