.png)
Vote Helper is a mobile app in which voters can access voter & election information all in one place.
When I was a Canvass Director on a voter registration campaign, I saw how many people were disengaged from the voting process. How might we we make voting more accessible? How might we de-stress the voting experience? How might we provide more tools for voting?
14 interviews
anyone who has voted in a U.S. election
My interview questions were designed to better understand the pain points in the vote process.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
14/14
felt a sense of duty, societal pressure, or right to vote.
But, only 2/14 said they believe every vote counts.
"We vote even when we know it's useless... You vote anyway; we were raised to believe we have a civic duty to vote."
2/14
had positive voting experiences to reflect on.
But, they both acknowledged their positive experiences were due to early voting, where the timing was more flexible and there wasn't a line.
"Increasingly at the polls there are lots of supports of various people and causes, that are accosting you.... mail-in ballots help alleviate that, though I find it all stressful."
8/14
struggled to find information about how to vote rather than who/which ballot measures to vote for, especially when out of state or overseas.
"Voter registration is one of the biggest struggles I run into since I move around."
5/14
organically brought up "I voted" sticker - surprising sense of acknowledgement and confirmation.
"Everyone knows that sticker is one of the best parts."
It is important to stress here that even for people who believe in their right to vote, or in their obligation to vote, voting is an overwhelmingly negative experience.
U.S. voters need accessible and useful voter & election information so they can feel properly prepared and engage in the voting process efficiently, no matter where they are located.
Vote Helper is a mobile app in which voters can access voter & election information all in one place: registration status and the option to update/register to vote, election dates based on voting location, polling locations (including live wait times), mail-in/absentee/other voting options, and sample ballots. It will also enable voters to track their votes to ensure they were counted. This app will source where the information is coming from, so users can trust the information and seek further information if they wish.
From here, I created a user flow of the potential paths a user could take to achieve either of the three reasons for using the app: tracking their vote, checking their vote registration status, or finding information about an upcoming election.
I did initial research on the general information websites need to track your vote (I used vote.org). I also included some explanatory language at the top, to emphasize the reason for the vote tracker. Again, ensuring one’s vote counted came up repeatedly in my user interviews.
I included an “I voted” sticker at the bottom because as my research showed, it was important to feel a sense of acknowledgement when voting, and the “I voted” sticker was something that 5 out of my 14 interviewees organically brought up.
Since I only showed one sample user’s journey to track their ballot, I would want to show what would happen if a user needs to register to vote or find more information for an upcoming election.
I would also want to do a competitive and comparative analysis of other apps and websites, and lead several rounds of usability testing for each level of fidelity. In the future, I would also want to diversify who I was interviewing to ensure the data was as rich and nuanced as possible.