Human Factor in Systems Design
Think about the need to improve transparency in the governance structure of your country(or other countries of interest). This need makes the development of an e-voting system necessary. An important aspect to consider is the usability and security of the e-voting system.Usability could solve problems relating to differences in languages, literacy levels, disabilities, and access to different technologies. The security could consider voters identification/authentication, and, vote duplication, transportation, collation, audit, and storage. Efficient Usability and security features would reflect citizens’ trust and confidence in elections. The e-voting system could be accessible to users through the web or mobile interfaces. As a member of the design team, you have responsibilities for creating personas that visualise various user groups and,storyboards that outline the voting procedure.
Task 1 – Create a Persona
The purpose of personas is to make reliable and realistic representations of important user segments. Effective personas represent a major user group, their needs, expectations and how they would like to use the e-voting platform. The ideal persona describes real people with backgrounds, goals, and values.
The following questions and areas of discussion will help you construct a persona of the ideal voter who is your user.
Objective | Questions |
Describe the User | Personal
· What is the look? (pictures/images) · What is the age, gender, race, religion, andlanguage information? · What aremarital status and educational qualifications? · What is the environment? (accommodation, location) Professional · Indicate youruser’s work and how much is earned · How much work experience does youruser have? · What are youruser’sneeds, interests, goals, aspirations, believes,etc Technical · What technological devices does your user use on a regular basis? · How much time does your person spend on these technologies |
User Motivation | · What is theuser’s problem with the current voting procedure?
· What arethe user’s expectations of voting systems? (i.e.regarding transparency, security, trust,andconfidenceof elections) |
At least, your persona should include the following key pieces of information:
- Fictional name and image
- Job titles and major responsibilities
- Demographics such as age, education, ethnicity, and family status
- Their physical, social, and technological environment
- Their knowledge of technology
- Their needs and expectation from the e-voting system (i.e. security, trust, confidence, inclusion,etc.)
Please organise persona information in an easy to read, logical format. Depending on the amount of user research you were able to conduct and the nature of your user group.Task 2 – Create a storyboard
Create a storyboard that shows how the user(s) depicted in your persona(s) will vote.The following questions and discussions will help you create a user story with your persona
Phase | Questions |
Pre- Voting Activity | · What activities or tasks would be completed before the user could vote? |
Voting Activity | · How will the user vote? What type of security could enhance the user’s confidence and trust? |
Post-Voting Activity | · What happens after the user voted? How secure is the collation process? |
Using your knowledge of use-case, provide a use case description of your storyboard. The description could itemise user journey (in bullet points).