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"Dan Emory" <danemory -at- primenet -dot- com> wrote in message news:77249 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
>
> OK, folks, I've sat back and listened to all the theory about the ballot
> design in Palm Beach County Fla. One of the things TWs are supposed
> to do is get the facts before they write knowledgeably about a
> subject. Most of you who have responded with criticism of the
> ballot design do not pass that basic test of competence.
<huge snip>
After all that, given the mechanical constraints (which could be ever come
should they have wished to spend the money; in San Francisco, a whole new
system was put in place this election. money spent for a purpose of getting
election results faster and more accurate), if they had to use the
"butterfly" design, why could it not have been designed with the name of the
presidential candidate on one side and the corresponding vice-presidential
candidate directly opposite?
Simple, elegant, and I'd wager far less likely to cause the confusion that
occurred. (Only testing would find out for sure.)
Realize too that the head of the elections in Palm Beach county did indeed
realize the usability problem that was there and issued extra instructions.
Now, how many of you work with engineers that (a) say to fix bad design in
the docs, and (b) have users that regularly and meticulously read the docs
before they proceed?
--
Chuck Martin
Technical Writer, Online Help Author, GUI & Interaction Designer
twriter "at" mindspring "dot" com
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