shovell.com

Oh dear, they finally get people interested in the election again (by tricking people into an idea that they could change things and that their vote counted).  Social media even got people talking about things again #ge2010 (although I don’t think it was the internet election a lot of people predicted)

Then when the voting started, we see queues, a shortage of ballot papers and people not able to vote because the polling station can’t handle the numbers and have to close at 10pm. (I do have to question why so many people are voting at that time but anyhow)

Surely, taking the process of placing a vote into account, and not even thinking about the actual marking a cross and posting your ballot, surely, there is a way of employing today’s amazing technology to make things quicker.

The bottle neck has to be in checking the names off, could a laptop and some kind of barcode scanner not be employed at this point, perhaps connected to a ballot paper printer to ensure that they don’t run out. This would get people through the door quicker.

The layout of the rooms should be thought about as well. for me it wasn’t erganomically designed. I walked in and over to a table, one person took my name and voting card and checked it off, another then wrote down a number (presumably a unique code for me so why look this up, why not put it on the card, in barcode format perhaps, revolutionary thought!) and handed me my ballot paper, the first person then gave me my polling cards back (why, what use were they to me?).
I then walked over to the opposite side of the room where the poll booths were, checked my ballot and did an about turn and walked back to where I had started to post my ballot.
I then had to walk back past the booths to get out of the door, where someone else took my cards from me!

Now it sounds trivial but if you designed the process like a production line going round the outside of the room around all of the things ending with the ballot box I would be much more efficient with my time, meaning I would be out quicker, meaning that the throughput would be greater meaning more people would be able to vote.
Simple eh?

This thinking gets applied every day for websites, how can we create a path/funnel that is efficient and can get people through it as quickly as possible.  Supermarkets make it into an exact science, lets try applying it for something as important as an election next time.

Not to worry, there will be a second chance to get it right in about 6 months!