Designing and building the Lan 4 Vot App
BACKGROUND
“Lan 4 Vot“ was a mobile app we designed & developed at Peculiar Labs to simulate the voting experience in Sierra Leone. Its name, derived from the local Krio language, means “Learn To Vote,“ emphasising simplicity and memorability.
The app addresses the issue of high void votes during elections, often due to voters encountering the process for the first time in the ballot box. The goal was to familiarise voters, especially first-timers, with the voting procedure in a hope to reduce void votes.
The app achieves this through a practice-oriented approach, enabling users to learn from mistakes in a risk-free environment. This problem was especially seen in past elections conducted in the country.
ROLE
User Interface & Experience Designer, Lead
Team
- Ing Obinna A. Browne - (Role)
- Tindae Feika - (Role)
- Amry Samuels - (Flutter Developer)
- Samuel B. Koroma - (Flutter Developer)
Timeline
April - June 2023
APPROACH
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) puts in a lot of PR and marketing to sensitise the population about the voting process during elections. Regardless in the last two elections, we still had a high turnout of void votes.
We wanted to complement the efforts of NEC with sensitisation but in a more digital way.
Sierra Leone has a youthful population, so our approach at Peculiar Labs was to go about this process using a mobile app.
We wanted a user to be able to simulate voting on the app, get acquainted with what the ballots looked like providing users with a realistic and interactive experience of the process..
How we went about it??
Same look on voting interface as the ballot papers
A minor detail, but for the home screen of the user interface, we decided to go with the same format as the ballot papers on polling day and to use real images of the candidates and their political parties. All in an effort to get the user real familiar with what the actual process would look like.
Valid Voting
With the first flow, a user could make a vote and if that vote was considered as valid, the app evaluated it and brought up a success screen for a valid vote
Out of bounds - Invalid Voting
With the first flow, a user could make a vote and if that vote was considered as valid, the app evaluated it and brought up a success screen for a valid vote
Multiple candidates - Invalid Voting
With the first flow, a user could make a vote and if that vote was considered as valid, the app evaluated it and brought up a success screen for a valid vote
Experiencing all possible voting scenarios within Lan 4 Vot app.
In our next meeting I demonstrated to the team that this whole process could be somehow simulated and made educational, that users of the app not only could vote but could do other things as well.
- Evaluation of votes.
- Freedom to vote and fail
- Learn from failure and get educated about the process.
How about the ballot box being in your pocket so you can noodle around with it because...
a lot of citizens do not experience voting until they are at polling stations, in the ballot box, and at that time, mistakes cannot be undone; first-time voters, especially, suffer from this.
We saw it as:
a way to increase voter competence, confidence and to ensure preparedness; we brought forth a PRACTICE, FAIL and LEARN
approach within the app.
Getting informed and educated about the way one votes within the app using the PRACTICE, FAIL and LEARN approach.
Practice
Users are given the opportunity to go through a simulated version of the voting process in the app. This allows them to familiarize themselves with the steps involved, such as selecting candidates, navigating the ballot, and completing the voting procedure and evaluating their votes.
Fail
The app intentionally allows users to make mistakes during the simulated voting process. This could include errors like selecting multiple candidates, improperly marking the ballot, or any other common mistakes that might occur during a real voting scenario.
Learn
After making mistakes, the app provides feedback, guidance, or educational content to help users understand what went wrong and why. This feedback is designed to be instructive, providing users with information on the correct procedures, potential pitfalls, and other relevant details about the voting process.
Valid Votes Flow
A vote is considered valid on a ballot paper when there is a proper marking for only one candidate on a ballot paper.
Within the app, you could use one of your fingers to cast a vote and if the marking is proper after submission and evaluation by the app, that vote is considered a valid vote.
IMAGES
Out of Bounds
- Invalid Vote Flow One
An out of bounds invalid vote on a ballot paper is when the marking on the ballot paper touches any of the lines or goes out of the line on the paper designated to be marked.
Within the app, you could use one of your fingers to cast a vote and if the marking touched any of the lines after submission and evaluation by the app, that vote was considered invalid & the user could be redirected to the reference page
IMAGES
Multiple candidates
- Invalid Vote Flow Two
A multiple candidates invalid vote on a ballot paper is when more than one candidate is marked on the ballot paper. Even if the markings were properly placed, that vote is still considered invalid or void because one can not vote for more than one candidate on a ballot paper.
Within the app, votes for multiple candidates after submission and evaluation was considered as an invalid vote, hence voided. A user was given the option to see and learn which voting scenarios counted for valid or invalid
IMAGES
Takeaway and Media
Building the Lan 4 Vot app at Peculiar Labs was a beautiful experience for the entire team. As a group of young enthusiastic folks, it showed our will and acts of service towards our community, discovering a problem and trying to bring a solution in our own way.
Getting the app to ship to Android store and being accessible by users was a big win in its own way for us also. We had designed, built and shipped a pro-bono project in order to inform and educate citizens about the voting process.
Brainstorming session with the Peculiar Labs team
Designing the screens for the Lan 4 Vot app
Unfortunately, the app was't met with the expectation we had for it. We had close to a hundred downloads where we expected hundreds of downloads.
We had to take that on the chin but we know there was a real need and we had built a beautiful and a functional app.
Brainstorming session with the Peculiar Labs team
SIKE!!
Of course, We were not going to let that stop us.
Still on a mission...
Despite the app not receiving the welcoming and having the impact we expected of it, we still feel it could be helpful out there to first time voters, aged people, the not so highly literate or anyone on informing about the election and the voting process...
So, we are still leaving it out there. It will be iterated on, with more features than the first version for the next elections and proper marketing will be done on it.
