Project:
OctoberVoter was a lightweight tool on desktop and mobile that provided users with the information they needed to vote absentee during the US general election
Client:
I created OctoberVoter as a self-directed side project in the months leading up to the 2016 election.
Project Expertise:
Creative Direction
User Interface
Marketing and Promotional
The premise
Voting absentee—the process of voting by mailed ballot—is a time-efficient way to vote in the United States. However, many voters don’t take advantage of this option or are simply unaware of how to vote absentee. Information on when and how to vote absentee is often, frustratingly, buried deep in state election websites and presented without context or user-friendliness.
The more you know
OctoberVoter consolidated state-specific information and links into one destination that assisted voters in the absentee voter registration process. While it did not constitute a “one-click” solution, it delivered a single page of information for voters and greatly simplified the research process. A twin goal of the site was to raise awareness of the issue of voter suppression and to join the chorus of voter outreach during the election.
Vote in your pajamas
The utilitarian aspect of absentee voting has not historically been a major marketing point. I identified this cultural understanding of absentee voting as a design problem and focused my art direction on marketing absentee voting as a stress-free way to cast a ballot.
The art direction also needed to be nonpartisan in its tone. A strong color palette specifically avoiding red and blue was essential. Strong typography and minimal imagery, to create a sense of simplicity and ease—that is also highly amenable to social media—was the primary creative direction in both the user interface and marketing. The tone of copy was conversational and informal.
The takeaways
I initiated this passion project in the last couple months leading up to the 2016 Presidential Election. Several independent get-out-the-vote tech efforts were already underway (including VotePlz and Hellovote), and they inspired me to experiment with my own contribution in a “hackathon” context. Ultimately it gained very little traction due to timing and creating outside of the greater context. There were many takeaways for me, chief among them:
Time constraints prevented me from accurately understanding and targeting users and how best to reach them. A product cannot be successful unless the discovery stage is comprehensive and precise and employs all stages of design thinking. In hindsight I was aiming toward completion and not necessarily impact.
In the ideation phase, I neglected to pinpoint areas of opportunity to partner with already existing players in the space. This would have greatly increased the likelihood of impact and reaching a larger audience, while decreasing time to market.
Despites these lessons, I gained a love for the “hacking” modus operandi and am eager for more opportunities to stretch my product design and UX skills.
