Articles in category: Featured Article

The Civic Design Bibliography

Research useful for civic and elections design is scattered into many different disciplines, from political science to computer science to work on design, reading, and accessibility. The Civic Design Bibliography brings this work together in a collection of material the most relevant research from all these fields with detailed abstracts for each … Continue reading

April 10, 2015

A better ballot for New York

In 2010, New York State used paper ballots for the first time.  Unfortunately, a NY League of Women Voters survey after the election found that many voters found the ballots hard to use because of small text, missing instructions, weak separation of contests We’ve created a design concept for a … Continue reading

August 2, 2012

Plain language is a process

There are great lists of guidelines and tips for writing in plain language, but when you are faced with making confusing instructions clear, where do you start? One way is to think about plain language as a process. Instead of trying to get the whole thing right in one try, … Continue reading

July 11, 2012

Saving your budget with plain language

At the annual gathering of county clerks, recorders, election officials, and treasurers, the closing keynote featured tips on how writing that everyone can understand can help officials do their work better, and save their budgets at the same time. Whitney Quesenbery’s presentation featured examples of improved materials from form letters … Continue reading

July 5, 2012