Project Results -What voters thought was good and bad.

With the project research complete, it is now a good time to sum up what the research was looking at and in particular what the results found. Our focus groups found that when voters know little to nothing about a candidate, the current standard voter information is not at all “useful”.

Standard Voter Information layout used in Candidate Information Booklets and Pamphlets

Bad VOFO or Blurbs, statements and block text are considered hard to read and comprehend. Voters will instead just use the photo and the names of candidates to “shortcut” or infer political information .i.e She “looks” like a good leader, he has a strong “sounding” name. Instead, voters need information that is provided not only in terms of  adequate quantity, but also high quality and accessible information.

Example of Infographic VOFO Layout

Good VOFO or Infographic voter information is able to provide this as it increases the quality (more information) whilst also increasing the quality (structure, organisation, focus) and boosting accessibility (colourful, interesting, easy to understand, quick to use).

Focus Group Time

My focus group set up. 8/9 2012

So after six months of research and pulling together a few scraps of international best practice on what makes good VOFO, it was time to try and test out if what I had learnt worked. I ran two focus groups of students who were new to voting(the time when they are most vulnerable to form non voting habits) and essentially asked them if compared to “stament based profile information” whether they found this visualized infographic information more useful and accessible.