Let’s use digital tools to get the voting system right

We believe the most powerful way to design solutions is through collaboration with the end user, in this case the voting public (Voxpop, DW 20 May).

Taking the voting system into the 21st century would require a 21st-century programme of discovery – we’d employ all of our favourite social networking and digital tools to uncover the electorate’s frustrations with the current system and establish what problem we are trying to fix (and that doesn’t include the choice of candidates).

On the basis that democracy is about the participation of citizens in government, then any solution would need to have, at its heart, the goal of driving greater involvement.

As social designers, this would be a fantastic project to work on, with a huge host of potential solutions. Whatever the outcome, I’d hope to see the end of those trips to a dusty school hall to crouch in a cubicle and surreptitiously mark an X. Bring on the era of the e-vote.

Benedict Kingsmill, Managing director, Think Public, London E1