
The Issue
First Impressions
- What do you notice about this ballot?
- Does the design clearly demonstrate how to complete it?
The Goal
- Design an election ballot that is simple to understand
- Demonstrate the iteration process through…
- Creating many ballot design sketches on paper
- Creating many iterations of ballots improving each success design based on peer feedback
- Identify and justify which GenCyber principles apply to your design
- Integrity– Assurance that information is accurate and trustworthy; information must be protected from unauthorized modification/change.
- Availability– Information is accessible to authorized persons.
- Keep It Simple – Value of keeping computer programming/system design simple without compromising the ability to protect information/data from unauthorized access.
Product
- Rough draft sketches of ballot designs (4 total on one piece of paper) that guide the eye, each successive design showing design evolution
- A final ballot design
- Reflection on the design process and GenCyber principles included in your design
Video Directions
Student Samples
- Coming soon!
Steps
Observe design elements in everyday objects
- Walk around and sketch at least four signs or other graphical elements that are designed for communication in your visual space
Read about Design Basics and C.R.A.P.
Read How To Direct A Viewer’s Eye Through Your Design

Search for election ballot and examine their design

- Examine simple and complicated designs
- How does your eye move through the document?
- What worked in the better designs?
- How can these designs help your own design?
Develop a metaphor for your design ideas (it may help your design)
- This can help people better understand your design by applying their current understanding of visual models
- CC image Mind Full v. Mindful by Heidi Forbes Öste at Flickr
Follow the generating ideas process
- Fold a piece of paper in half twice
- You will have four sections that each have a front and back
- Complete following 2-step cycle four times:
- Brainwrite (solo) a ballot in one of the quarter sections of the piece of paper
- Show and brainstorm (together) with another student what you drew, analyze with C.R.A.P. principles and write feedback on the back of your sketch (behind that the quarter section)
Scan or take pictures of your sketches
- Scan or take a picture your final four ideas
- Upload your scans to Flickr as a .jpg file
- Under the Sketches heading, embed your uploaded image
- Watch the How to upload to Flickr and Embed into your Blog Tutorial
Make a final iteration of your best design on paper
- Use the Design Feedback Form to get feedback from another student about your final design
- Under the Final Iteration heading, embed your uploaded image
- Watch the How to upload to Flickr and Embed into your Blog Tutorial
Create a blog post titled, Design a Ballot Project
- Copy and paste the content from the project outline blog post
- Place a Creative Commons image at the top of this blog post and cite your source
- Watch the tutorial, Adding and Citing a Creative Commons from Flickr to Your Blog
- Fill in your content under these headings:
- Summary
- Sketches
- Final Iteration
- What I Learned and Problem(s) I Solved
Write what you learned and problems you solved
- What feedback did you receive from your peers and what improvements did you make because of that feedback?
- What were the most challenging parts of this project?
- What are you most proud of in your work?
- What resources did you use to create your design?
- Identify where in your design you satisfy some or all of the GenCyber principles; Integrity, Availability, and Keep It Simple
Resources
If you create a digital version:
- Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
- Download and install a font
- Video Tutorial
- 1001fonts.com
- Install into Font Book on the Mac
- click the picture to enlarge
- Open the Character Window and chose a font
- View > Type > Character
Feedback Form
- Coming Soon!
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