Information Design

When you communicate with someone, you are designing information to cause an action. Sometimes, this action is as simple as learning something new. Other times, the action might be more complicated, like registering to vote. Information design is the process of making the information you want to share clear, engaging, accessible, and usable. 

You can apply information design principles to everything from your website and voter education, to ballots and forms. Key elements of information design include:

  • Knowing your audience
  • Content Structure
  • Plain language
  • Hierarchy
  • Typography
  • Visuals
  • Color
  • Consistency


Tools

Design review conversation guide

Use this conversation guide to get feedback on concepts, first drafts, and near-final drafts.

Designing usable ballots

We know now from several years of testing ballots all over the U.S. that implementing simple principles of design make it much…

Choosing how to communicate with voters

Election officials have more ways to communicate with voters than ever before, from traditional printed booklets, to the web, radio and…

Designing voter education booklets and flyers

With each election, voters receive flyers and booklets to help them understand the election process, register, find their polling places, and learn what’s…

Guiding voters through the polling place

Hurricane Sandy, which struck the East Coast just before Election Day in 2012, delivered lessons and opportunities. Election officials proved just how resourceful…

Civic icons and images

Visuals to enhance your website, voter guides, posters, mailers, and more.