Usability testing in multiple languages? Read our new workbook

March 28, 2024

Multilingual usability testing is an effective way to make sure voting materials communicate to your voters in a language and design that resonates with them. Here's a workbook on getting started.

cover page for conducting multilingual usability testing

Design manuals that empower poll workers on Election Day

March 4, 2024

We’ve published three resources for designing manuals for poll workers: a best practice guide, a Word template and a How-to-use Word guide.

2023 Annual Report

January 11, 2024

We like to say that in elections, small improvements snowball. Read about our work from 2023 in our annual report.

New York adopts a plain language bill for ballot proposals

December 11, 2023

We are so excited that New York has a new law requiring that ballot questions and proposed constitutional amendments be written in plain language and in a YES or NO format.

CCD turns 10! A decade of change in elections

September 13, 2023

We’ve spent the last 10 years using design to improve the voting experience for millions of voters across the country. Here’s the impact we’ve had along the way.

Design and text can work together to make RCV election status and results clear

August 2, 2023

We recently published a best practice guide that covers everything we know (so far!) about what makes a great RCV election results display. While this research was focused on news articles, we think these best practices can apply to election offices as well. We're excited to share two of our top tips with you.

Take your usability testing to the next level

June 26, 2023

At CCD, we love usability testing. But what we love even more is when elections offices can do their own testing, try out essential usability testing skills or run more complicated tests.

Libraries, parks and community centers: Go where the people are for usability testing

May 19, 2023

Intercept testing is a way to check that all of your materials work well, before you launch them. Here are our tips on how to run intercept tests.

Election websites need great headings, accordions, and clear navigation

April 28, 2023

Building on our earlier research, we discovered trends about what works well in election websites and what confused voters. We hope these findings will be useful for your election website.

How to adapt usability testing to fit the needs of your project

March 24, 2023

At the Center for Civic Design we do all kinds of usability testing and along the way, we've learned a lot about how to adapt a test to an individual project.

Communication and voter education is key to election innovation

February 28, 2023

On November 8, 2022, voters in Franklin County, Idaho had the option to vote in a pilot of a new, innovative technology called ElectionGuard. Here's our part of the pilot.

2022 Annual Report

January 10, 2023

In 2022, CCD worked in 16 states and reached 53 million voters. We released tools for election administrators, conducted research studies and usability tests, and taught new skills across the county. Read all about it in our annual report.

3 new language access quick guides to help you build your program

October 26, 2022

We've just released 3 new language access guides: Working with Translation Vendors, Translating for Elections, and

We launched a user-friendly website with accessible voting options in every state

September 12, 2022

AccessibleVoting.net – a new nation-wide index of accessible voting options – launched just in time for the 2022 Disability Voting Rights Week. CCD collaborated with Microsoft and Coforma.io on this project.

We’ve updated our Civic Images Library. Ready, set, illustrate!

August 11, 2022

Check out recent updates to our civic images library, available for free on electiontools.org.

The USPS wants your help to improve ballot processing.

July 27, 2022

Send samples of your ballot materials to USPS. It helps you catch errors, and helps USPS improve vote by mail processes for election offices everywhere.

Making Democracy Robust with 100% Voter Turnout

June 30, 2022

There's a lot of work that needs to be done to achieve 100% democracy in the US. Civic Design has a part to play in that work.

QR codes and short URLs get voters to information quickly

June 14, 2022

QR codes and short links are two easy to use tools that can help voters find specific pages on your website quickly/

Don’t miss these opportunities for election officials

April 29, 2022

2 upcoming opportunities for election officials: join the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and attend the Democracy Fund State Association Conference.

Ballot questions are hard to understand. Here are 6 ways to fix them.

April 19, 2022

Ballot questions give voters an opportunity to have a say in the way their government functions. But all too often, voters feel confused when they encounter them.

Speed up form design with our new InDesign template

March 25, 2022

Our new InDesign template makes it fast and easy to create print masters and accessible, fillable forms at the same time.

Cover: Creating accessible forms for print + PDF