As midterm elections near, let’s ponder what voting can teach us about user experience. Customers, of course, vote all the time – with their wallets. Confuse or burden them and you’re likely to lose the sale. These UX tips can help keep them in your column.
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Use clear, plain language for better returns. The instructions below were intended to guide voters through a two-sided ballot. The first was a fail, as some thought it was a suggestion to vote both Democrat and Republican. When lawyers, regulators or careless writers muddy the waters, be sure to make things clearer, at least to the extent allowed. |
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Appoint usability experts to the job. Remember Florida’s infamous butterfly ballot, which confused voters by putting candidates on both sides of its punch holes? It was created by a county elections supervisor with the best of intentions – to make the ballot’s type size bigger for seniors. The moral: use UX pros for UX challenges. |
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Employ user testing liberally. This ballot’s two-row design caused people to choose multiple candidates for the same office, negating their votes. Usability testing can reveal such issues. And it reminds us to fault the design, not the user, when problems arise. |
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