Voting Machine Diagnostic
Desktop App
The Problem:
The setup and diagnosis of a voting machine is a time-consuming and costly activity required in two critical stages of the electoral process.
- During the configuration and readiness of the equipment in the warehouse - performed by the Warehouse Operator, and
- On the day of the Election Day in the voting center - carried out by the Poll Worker.
This time-consuming activity in the warehouse is affecting the Candidate Registration process. Setting up and delivering the voting machines to their corresponding voting place takes three months; the Candidate Registration process needs to be closed three months before election day.
Conversely, the cost of producing the machines could be decreased by improving the diagnosis process.
The Challenge
How might we reduce the time the warehouse operator spends on the voting machine diagnostic process so the whole logistic process is more efficient, allowing the candidate registration process to have a more extensive period to accept new registrations?
Team and Role
The Team:
- 1 Product Manager
- 1 Compliance Engineer
- 1 Engineering lead
- 4 Development/QA Engineers
- 1 Lead UX Designer
- 1 UX Designer
My Role
- Lead the design vision of the project
- User Research
- Experience Design
The Process:
Discover
01. Analyze existing data:
- I analyzed the requirements defined by the government.
- I analyzed collected data from previous elections.
02. Identify business goals
- We defined, grouped, and prioritized the goals.
03. Map Service Blueprint
We mapped the whole service to...
- understand how this portion could affect the whole service, and
- know the before and after of this portion of the service.
04. Understand and empathize with the users
- I researched and designed the interview plan.
- We conducted interviews with several warehouse operators and poll workers.
- We analyzed and categorized the findings.
- We understood the current process and identified the pain and gain points.
05. Map the current journey and identify pain points
- We mapped the current journey and identified the pain and the gain points.
06. Define outcomes (KPIs)
- We identified the indicators we needed to measure, like task completion time, cost savings, and the voting machine setup time reduction.
Ideate
07. Map the new journey
- After understanding the current process, I set and moderated a meeting with the project team to define the new user journey.
- I mapped the new diagnostic process and designed the application flow.
08. Sketch the Flow
After distilling the research, we quickly created low-fidelity wireframes to iterate through various design options. Working with the product manager and engineering lead, we used the sketches to discuss feasibility and product strategy.
Prototype
09. Prototype
- We created a prototype that was refined after the testing sessions.
- We created variations of the prototype to compare them.
Test
10. Test and Iterate
- I created a usability testing protocol to formally document the testing process and how to process and deliver the findings to make decisions accordingly.
- I planned the testing sessions.
- We performed usability testing and collected and categorized insights and feedback.
- We performed A/B tests to compare and identify the most efficient version.
Design Decisions (DD)
DD-01: Sequence of items to diagnose
I ordered the items that required diagnosis based on the location of each in the voting machine.
This allowed the operator to create more efficient thought processes that enabled them to perform faster.
Another way to order the components that must be checked in the machine:
- Analyzing items requiring less interaction to those requiring connection or insertion.
DD-02: Remove unnecessary tests
This touchscreen test was removed because it was unnecessary and overly cumbersome.
DD-03: Ideal amount of information while providing precise and straightforward instructions
Since this task assures that the machine is in perfect condition to operate on election day, there must be the right amount of details - so that in case there is any problem; technicians will be able to solve it.
The Outcomes
Increase of Candidate Registration Period
Decrease in Diagnostic Completion Task
Decrease in Setup Completion Task
Cost Savings
Takeaways
In this project, I want to highlight the importance of paying particular attention to the ops tools involved in the service experience. Sometimes, we think the ops tools are only internal tools that affect internal users, but most of the time is not that way. Remember that all pieces are part of a system that is connected.
In this case, this small portion of the full service helped to increase the time in an external process like the Candidate's Registration while improving the warehouse operator’s and poll worker's experience and saving costs.
Prototype Exploration
You are invited to view the video and take a look at the flow.
Click on the link below to interact with it.
