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Making voter guide "user friendly"

   I've never had the chance before to vote in a primary election. Having moved around a lot from state to state, I just haven't been registered at the right time. So I was excited about the opportunity to vote here Tuesday.
    Was ... that is, until I received three intimidating pieces of official literature in the mail, one which was quite hefty. Now, I'm thinking twice about going to the polls.
    As a Web and interface designer in Silicon Valley, I am always looking for ways to make things more user-friendly. The state could take some pointers from the high-tech industry by making voter guides simpler for the user.
    Start with the first impression: extremely official, intimidating, time-consuming. Who has time to review 147-plus pages of complex documents on 31 different propositions? We have jobs!
    Working as a designer has taught me that unless a design is simple, eye-catching, short and to the point, it's never going to be successful in today's marketplace. In both print and on the Web, if you don't design pages effectively, people are going to turn or click away faster than you can blink an eye.
    Although the government is, technically, a monopoly, it does face all kinds of competition for our attention. And in a world full of startups and savvy marketers of all stripes, you have to put your best foot forward to survive. Image is everything.
    Our government has a long way to go to make its image user-friendly. The people putting together these voter information guides obviously never learned the motto of a good interface designer: Simpler is better.
    Good designers also know not to intimidate the user with too much content or big words. I am not a stupid person; I am a college graduate and working professional who listens to the news on the radio every morning. If I am having problems with this literature and feel overwhelmed, I doubt I am alone.
    Fewer and fewer people bother to vote every year. If we want a higher voter turnout, wouldn't it make sense to simplify the voter's guide as much as possible? Heck, I'd even consider volunteering my design services.
    The state's Voter Information Guide does do a couple of things right. First, it includes 10 pages marked with blue tabs, quickly summarizing most of the propositions. I found this very useful once I discovered it, and quickly discarded the rest of the 147 pages ... and am now considering voting again.
    Unfortunately, the summary is buried in the middle of the book, so chances are that a lot of people won't even make it that far.
    Second, it includes a place for feedback. If you have your own comments about this year's voter information guide, write them down and mail them to the address in the back of the book:

Office of the Secretary of State
Attn: Voter Information Guide
Elections Division
1500 11th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

    Meanwhile, I've designated a four-hour time slot this weekend to read through the materials. I hope it won't take longer than that to review everything - or else I won't be ready to vote.

San Jose Mercury News, March 5, 2000

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