You are currently browsing the this is now category.
Regardless of your stance on capital punishment, no human finds it morally reconcilable to murder the innocent. There is no implementable way our justice system can insure that an innocent man is not executed. We must say that nobody, not even the government, has the constitutional right to take the life of another. This must end.
We are approaching the cusp of an epic moment in humanity. Our only option to surpass this moment is to defer our short term conflicts and start collaborating on our future. It’s time to get to work people.
The New York Times City Room blog in association with the AIGA hosted an open call for ballot designs this summer. For the first time in decades New Yorkers were heading to the polls with new voting machines and ballots. The challenge was to overcome the significant weaknesses of current and past voting systems and design a better ballot for New York. My submission, “A ‘Gerontechnological’ Approach,” and others can be found on City Room.
[nggallery id=5]
Problems:
Accessibility: Those with physical impairments and non-native English speakers can find the ballot inaccessible because they cannot fill in a small circle, see the text or read it in their native language.
Legibility: Current ballots take the “all-at-once” approach to visual composition. All races, candidates and languages are shown on one page which makes the critical information harder to decipher.
Flexibility: The current paper ballot is less flexible than electronic systems. Changing selections requires a new ballot and more time, adding undue time pressure to your vote and increasing the likelihood of errors.
Data Credibility: Many voting systems do not maintain both paper ballots and databases. This can easily result in improper records and little ability to cross-verify ballots with election totals, leaving a hole where some votes are overcounted or undercounted.
Intervention:
I decided to address these problems from a gerontechnological approach. That is, by designing for the limitations and capabilities of older adults, the result will be the most accessible ballot for all. (Bouma 2) To do this, I decided to design a ballot for electronic voting machines because testing shows that adults make fewer errors on these systems compared with paper ballots. Pen devices (stylus) cause more errors and time consumption, so I opted for a touch interface. (Charness 9) This minimizes the motor skills required to complete the ballot. If you can tap the screen, you can vote.
Electronic voting machines also increase accessibility by allowing the voter to change the language or text size and receive audio assistance at any stage of the ballot. Another benefit of electronic systems is that each race can be shown on a separate page, which decreases the likelihood for errors and emphasizes the relevant information for each race. (Ibid. 10)
The touch interface also allows for quick and easy changes in selection. Stepping out from the booth, asking for a new ballot, then refilling all your previous selections, just to change one answer, adds unnecessary pressure to complete the ballot faster as the line behind you grows longer. A touch system allows the voter to simply tap another choice and the selection is changed. It also adds a confirmation step to each page and a summary of your choices before submission. This confirmation and review assures that the voter is aware of any mistake made along the way and decreased the amount of unintentional selections. (Ibid. 7)
Finally, it is critical to inextricably tie the ballot with the person voting. This helps prevent voter fraud by those who vote both absentee and in person and those who claim the identity of the dead to vote numerous times. Using a fingerprint scanner (seen at nearly all D.M.V. offices), poll workers can assure that each person votes once and only once. This fingerprint data is only compared with other ballots for the current election to ensure no double votes were made. They should then be destroyed after the election is complete and never shared with any other government office or agency much like personal census data. The voter also signs a printed out ballot to verify the information one last time. The paper ballots are sealed as an alternate back-up database, in case a recount is needed and the electronic data has been compromised.
Sources:
Bouma, H. & J. A. M. Graafmans (Eds.), Gerontechnology. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1992. Print.
Charness, N. & T. Jastrezembski. “What Older Adults Can Teach Us About Designing Better Ballots.” Ergonomics In Design. 2007. Print.
Researchers once thought the use of electronic devices could not go up. They were wrong.
Check out this terrifying but startlingly true article about teens and media consumption. http://bit.ly/78f6qk
(via NYTimes)
 |
VS |
 |
You may remember a lot of buzz in 2009 over BPA (Bisphenol A), a compound that has been known to produce adverse effects in humans for decades. The chemical is used to harden plastics and is present in many plastic bottles used for soda, juice and water. This produced a trend in the US where many consumers ditched the disposable plastic bottles for refillable aluminum canteens (contempo-designed canteens, but canteens none-the-less).¹ A large profiteer of this trend was Swiss company Sigg who has been making aluminum canteens since 1908.
The drama started at the end of 2008 when Sigg quietly reformulated the proprietary liner they use inside the bottle to prevent the aluminum from leaching into the beverage. The liner was exposed as containing BPA after years of profiting off of a product consumers assumed was BPA-free and riding the early wave of bottle ditchers in the US, the company realized it needed to actually produce a BPA-free bottle to maintain customer loyalty and trust. The change came two minutes too late as previous customers roared that they had been deceived by Sigg. Though the liner containing BPA is not present in bottles made after August 2008 and has been proven to not leach BPA into the bottle’s contents, it still shattered customer’s trust in the company.²
But one man’s catastrophy is another’s opportunity and as Sigg tried to sweep up the mess by offering free exchanges for bottles with the BPA liners, another company gained traction. Klean Kanteen, a California based company founded in 2004, took the chance to show off their BPA-free bottles and in the past year have gained a large following. Klean Kanteens are made of stainless steel and unlike Sigg’s aluminum bottles, require no lining to prevent seepage into the bottles contents. This makes the bottles not only BPA-free, but “everything-free” with the obvious exception of stainless steel.
With the lack of disclosure on Sigg’s part about their BPA content, many find comfort in the fact that no lining in the bottle means that no substances may be revealed in the future that could potentially harm the drinker, unlike Sigg’s proprietary lining. Aside from chemical composition, I like the fact that the mouth of the bottle is wider which makes it easier to refill and clean. Also supporting a California based company who has always embrased full disclosure versus the Swiss who keep secrets well hidden (I’m looking at you UBS) makes me more confident in a product that I hope will last for many years to come.
A great little commentary that connects the Conan shake-up and the future of media.
Conan O’Brien’s belief that a time slot still matters does not hold true for the 18-34 year old audience. For this next audience, the time slot is being replaced by a URL.
(via NYTimes)
Apparently, the number of colors doubles every 28 years.
(via WeatherSealed)
