Newsflash: it’s a presidential election year. But you knew that. We’re in the midst of message bombardment: VOTE! Register to vote! Vote early! Vote for the good guy!
But is there anyone telling us how to make sure the voting process proceeds as seamlessly as possible?
Now there is. A collaborative team led by Drew Davies from Oxide Design has created a series of manuals called Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent in an effort to guide designers towards the creation of straightforward, trustworthy ballots. The guides were created in collaboration with election and usability experts Dana Chisnell and Whitney Quesenbery, and the team who worked on the four volumes are all associated with AIGA’s Design for Democracy initiative.
The first series of Field Guides features four titles: Designing Usable Ballots, Writing Instructions Voters Understand, Testing Ballots for Usability, and Effective Poll Worker Materials. Each pocket-sized volume is heavily researched but clearly written, using the format of a “Top Ten” list of steps to take to ensure usable tools for the democratic process.
AIGA Design for Democracy notes in an article on their site that “These guides will help county election officials, designers and advocates design ballots, write instructions for voters, test ballots for usability and create effective poll worker materials.”
Why use Scout Books?
Chisnell explained, “We chose Scout because of the size. There are other books and reports that cover this content, but they’re…books. Some of them with hundreds of pages.” The succinct format of the Scout Book requires the content contained in the Field Guides to be simple, direct, and clear.
The books have received a glowing reception among election officials, many of whom have expressed gratitude and awe to the design team at their excellent execution of a brilliant idea.
Here at Scout Books, we’re proud to see our pocket-sized publishing platform lend itself to an empowering civic tool. Civicdesign.org explains it best when they say, “Democracy is a design problem.” The tools, systems and processes that designers create (or CAN create) directly empower citizens to make powerful choices that can shape the world we live in.