The challenge extended well beyond the voting interface itself. In the final room of the exhibition, visitors were encouraged to cast their vote using iPads mounted throughout the space. But with hundreds of people moving through the gallery, these devices could create congestion and queues. Poor mobile reception within parts of the gallery also made using a personal device difficult, creating another barrier to participation.
Rather than simply redesigning the voting interface, we looked at the complete journey. How do visitors discover that they can vote? Where do they make their decision? When and where are they most likely to vote? And how can they use their own device without creating opportunities for duplicate or fraudulent votes? The resulting service design approach explored a more flexible model, allowing visitors to vote on their own devices where reception allowed, or shortly after leaving the exhibition, while maintaining the controls required to ensure each person could vote only once.
The project culminated in a clear hypothesis and prototype that could be trialled during the exhibition. The results were encouraging: the new approach performed better than expected, helping reduce pressure around the gallery's voting infrastructure while making participation easier. Most importantly, the trial resulted in more votes being cast than ever before, demonstrating that improving the service around voting can have a significant impact on participation.
