Simply said
the simplification centre's blog
No Logo
When the course of history depends on the ballot paper, the paper had better be understandable. So it's great to see that the Electoral Commission has been getting some serious usability research done on the design of ballot papers and the associated information for voters. More necessary than ever in the UK, now that voters are faced with different voting systems for UK Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, EU and local government.
You can read the research report on the Commission's website: it's a model of clarity. The results show just how important the details of layout and wording are. They also illustrate the power of the logo. To quote the report:
Candidates who did not have logos on the ballot paper were seen as inferior. Independent candidates are not permitted to use a logo on the ballot paper. Participants saw these candidates as being "inferior", and said they would be unlikely to vote for them as they didn't seem "official enough".
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A panel of non-experts
A panel of non-experts The Centre is recruiting a wide range of typical users to help test documents and websites for ease of use. -
Parliament waves big stick (and laughs) at Government's language
The Public Administration Select Committee publishes its report on official language. -
Common sense about parking
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal makes some important general points about government communications with the citizen -
Testing, testing
A debate has broken out in the pages of Design Week, a magazine for professional designers, about user-testing... -
A piece of ceremonial
Some unrealistic assumptions about what customers will read -
IKEA - we see things differently
The instructions may confuse - even before you get to the store -
No Logo
The Electoral Commission has researched the impact of ballot paper design on voters' choices -
Good passives
Using the active rather than the passive sometimes has a price -
Stay happy: satisfice!
Why we're (rightly) not rational consumers. -
On the road again
A successful round of document roadshows reveals some common themes.
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