Voxpop

The process should be branded to articulate, communicate and generate awareness, trust and interest. Polling stations should be chosen and organised to handle high turnouts with clear signage, instructions and confidential space for voters, who should have a choice between paper or digital ballots which are legible and secure from fraud. Registration, polling spaces, ballot boxes and voter receipts are all opportunities to improve the ’experience’ and, therefore, voter turnout and confidence.
Christopher Nurko, Global chairman, Future Brand

The perfect voting system would be a dynamic website aggregating all the parties’ policies within a simple graphic interface. Entering via a secure log-in area, users would rate each policy, generating a voting profile to help them make their final decision. The parties’ names would be hidden to eradicate tactical voting based on family tradition, allegiance to class or the personality of individual politicians.
Alex Acosta, Design director, Clusta

How the numbers are arrived at is vital. But a usable system should start with the voter. I’d find out what people want from their vote – there’s often a conflict between local and national aspirations. I’d redesign our creaking polling system around how citizens live, and around when the bottlenecks of demand tend to be. Only when the system is fair and fit for purpose would I look at the communications.
Lydia Thornley, Design consultant

The sensible answer would be some sort of e-democracy to vote online. It would make the process easier and speed up the results, and possibly increase participation and engage an otherwise cynical electorate. But I’m fond of our current Dad’s Army system. The dusty polling stations, the David Dimbleby all-night commentary and the fact that you never know what to expect in the morning.
Nick Couch, Creative director, Figtree

We should modernise and use the channels people use every day. A secure, Web-enabled system that allows both Internet and mobile voting alongside more traditional methods would maximise turnout, speed up the process and be all-inclusive. By implementing progressive multi-channel accessibility, user experience and data processing, we may even keep up with the rest of the world. The result will then be truly representative.
Darren Holburn, Partner, Dusted