Designing a user interface for a Maltese electoral system voting machine

Abstract

In recent years, the need for an electronic voting system in Malta has been felt more than ever before, with counting of votes sometimes taking close to a week and human errors sparking up court cases and instability in parliament. An electronic voting system would arguably smooth out these flaws. However, as in any critical electronic system, a number of hurdles need to be overcome. Events around the world have proven that the user interface design of the electronic ballot is one of them. Design errors have proven to be very costly in certain situations, failing to capture thousands of voter’s intention. An interface that discourages the voter could potentially dissuade the electorate from turning up to vote, spur doubts on the elections themselves and have a long lasting effects on such a crucial democratic process. This study’s aim is to study user-interface design principles and techniques and adapt them to effectively design a well-tested and evaluated user interface for a Maltese electoral system electronic voting machine. The designed interface will aim to cater for a defined user base that has been derived from the test-subjects available for this study. The approach taken towards the design of the system is very user-centric and is based around real-user feedback and usability test results. An iterative process is carried out in which prototypes are subjected to a number of usability tests. The feedback testers provide is taken into consideration and another prototype is developed to be tested in the following iteration. As the process advances, the artefact develops from simple wireframes and paper prototypes, into a high-fidelity interface. As testers diagnose design problems and solutions are implemented, results show clear and significant improvements in the design’s effectiveness, efficiency and the user’s level of satisfaction, confirming the strength and importance of usability testing in voting ballot and user interface design.