Electioneering : Ballot Reform Book Review

How to Fix a Ballot: What voting-booth materials look like is almost as important as who’s running

Newsweek took a look at “Design for Democracy: Ballot + Election Design” in this article. Nice to see, however, that our projects are still working on topics that where this book stops short, namely web design and electronic voting. Apparently only 4 pages devoted to these topics.

“There are two significant areas that are glossed over, however: Web design and electronic voting…Fair enough, but it’s shortsighted not to explore the unique complexities of information flow and hierarchy on Web sites and touchscreens with the same care and attention spent here on printed material. In successful online or electronic projects graphic design is inseparable from interactive design—”human factors” (industryspeak for how a user pokes around an electronic interface) are, at the very least, as important as what font an art director picks.”

Interactivity : Blob Detection for Final Project

Working with the blob detection library, I am step by step partitioning up the screen.  Each of these different quadrants need to recognize if they have a blob in them and reveal a white circle if so.

Interactivity Prototype II: Vitruvian Animations

Prototype 2, PDF Format
Prototype 2, HTML version

Animations for Major Studio Final Project : Stage II prototyping

Interactivity : Final Project Prototype Development II

Technology

Computer Vision

Processing with Blob Detection Library

Webcam

“Secrets” portion

After Effects

Prototype II

Interactivity : Final Project Prototype Development

Draft A

Draft B

Interactivity: Final Project Precedents

Final Project List of Precedents

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Electioneering : Board of Elections Website Analysis | Texas

• Immediately faced with a great deal of information and multiple navigation locations
  • Top Left Vertical Nav (Home, Site Index, etc)
  • Top Center Horizontal Nav with Pictures (About the Office, Elections & Voter Info, State Rules, etc)
  • Left Lower Vertical Nav (related links under Top Center option “Elections & Voter Information”
• Still not a fluid arrangement of information
• Voter Information leads me to this list of links:

Electioneering : Choice of Wiki

Requirements:

• Universal Editing Capabilities by all users
• Embed Links
• Embed Video/Audio
• Voting

Some Options:

• WackoWiki
• Media Wiki
• DocuWiki

Electioneering : Board of Elections Website Analysis | Idaho

Ok. This rocks. Look what Idaho has posted on their site since they are “Determined to Vote”:

http://www.idahovotes.gov/Media/Determined_to_Vote_animation.wmv

Electioneering : Final Project Checklist

• CONTENT | What questions need answering on Board of Elections websites?  I am brainstorming to gather as many questions as might be relevant to a voter.  As the project is focused on the voter as user, it creates a stricter guideline for questions to ask.

  • STATUS : Currently brainstorming.  Still perusing through websites that are well-done to collect questions.  Also, I want to keep in mind that it’s not just about answering the questions, but perhaps the WAY the questions are answered.  For instance, New Hampshire has available “How To Vote” videos available for download.  Currently, they are not in their most accessible presentation as one is required to fully download to their hard disk, but definitely the idea and resources are there.

• TECHNOLOGY | I have begun my introduction into setting up my own wiki for this project.  I agree that utilizing the web community to populate the project with content is a good idea.

  • STATUS : I have downloaded WackoWiki software to begin setting up the project.  This is my first experience with setting up a wiki, so there is a learning curve, but luckily I am taking Intro to DB, so at least it’s not quite as foreign as it could be.  Worst case is that I simply begin collecting the information on my own and posting it in table form.  I think that more interesting results will stem from this being a group project, though.  We shall see… we shall see…

• OUTREACH | Once running, by what method should I do outreach to ask for help?  Should I target organizations like the League of Women Voters?  Or perhaps there are forums where I am able to post the project?

  • STATUS : Keeping this in the back of my mind, but not quite ready to ask for help just yet.