We are now nearly 8-years from the 2000 election.  Remember the “hanging chads?”  It was a badly designed ballot, something that fourth-graders could have designed better, that produced the election fiasco in Florida.  Yet as we approach the 2008 presidential election, we still have badly designed ballots, which assures that yet another election will become a fiasco.

Lawrence Norden, of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, is quoted by Deborah Hastings of the Associated Press as saying “...We still have not systematically addressed the need for good ballot design standards.  We’ve spent billions of dollars on overhauling election administration in this country, but we’re still seeing the same ballot design mistakes in almost every federal election.”

Hastings writes, “There are no federal laws concerning ballot design.  Some states have guidelines, others don’t.  Largely, ballots are designed by local election officials, who number more than 5,500.  On Election Day, that means there will be the same number of ballots across the country, all with different designs.”

There has already been all sorts of confusion and controversy in state after state during the recent primaries.  People complained that some ballots containing delegate choices were hard to read and could be easily overlooked.  In Ohio, people got upset when poll workers insisted they remove a perforated ballot stub, which was used as an accounting device, on which, as Hasting’s writes, “was clearly printed ‘Do Not Remove.’”  Thousands of voters feared their ballot would not be counted.  Bad design plagues mankind.

The Packit Toilet, An Example of Good Design

We take great pride in the fact that what we say the Packit Toilet will do, it does, and exactly as we say it does.  We worked very hard to make it as intuitive to use as possible (the same for the Digger).  We have a label that has images showing how to assemble it, but even small children, 6 and 7-year olds, ‘figure it out’ by themselves.  Even though they’ve never seen the Packit Toilet before, it only takes them a few minutes to set it up, insert a waste bag, and use it without incident.

Good design is the result of taking all sorts of things into consideration.  Who is going to be using the product?  Where are they going to be using it?  What are their ages, nationalities, gender, etc?  For example, the typical home toilet is some 65 pounds of porcelain bolted to the floor.  It’s usually about 15 and a half inches off the floor, which is fine for most adults.  But it’s not fine for most small children.  They can’t touch the floor with their feet for balance.  This produces all sorts of problems.  Many children lose their balance and fall off - in too many cases causing injury.

We did a lot of research to determine how high the Packit Toilet should be to accommodate the most people - including most children - safely.  A child of 3 can sit alone on the Packit Toilet and touch the ground (even some 2-years olds).  Yet a 6 foot 4 inch person can sit on it and not feel awkward.  We learned that 14 and a half inches was the perfect height for an ultralight toilet that required people of varying sizes and ages to balance themselves with their feet while eliminating their body wastes.  Our customers - young and old - agree.

Without meaning to be arrogant, we have 3 suggestions for ballot designers.  1)  Leave some space between the delegate’s names.  Space allows even a person with poor eyesight to create separation between the choices.  2) Print the names larger than the accompanying text, and with a bold easy-to-read typeface.  3) Ask 8 and 9-year old children if they understand the ballot - before getting them printed for the general voters.  Children will tell you if you have a good design or not.  If they don’t like it, the adult [children] who are voting won’t like it either.