Argentina’s
general election in October ended with a provisional vote count that was hailed
as “the quickest, most precise and
transparent in the
history of Argentinian democracy” by Rogelio Frigerio, Minister of the
Interior, Public Works and Housing.
Undoubtedly,
this feat is the result of the combined effort of Smartmatic, Argentine authorities,
election operators, volunteers and many others. Nonetheless, our UX/UI team also
deserves some special credit. As a survey suggests, the approach to product development
used to develop the solution used in Argentina proved crucial in the delivery
of fast and accurate results which were validated by all stakeholders.
·
97.9% of election operatives described
the software’s operability as “simple” or “very simple.”
·
89% of these operatives considered
the transmission process from the polling centers to have been “speedy” or “very
speedy”.
·
92.3% had no problems in carrying
out the tasks assigned to them.
Fabiola
Arrivillaga, Smartmatic’s UX/UI manager, tells us that, “the levels of acceptance
shown in the survey are a direct result of Smartmatic’s work developing
empathy, questioning every decision we made, and making sure we took into
consideration the end user’s experience. For months we studied which elements of
our solution would improve the user’s experience. With this in mind, we selected
our content strategy, adjusted screen flows, and created clear instructions,
always avoiding the use of confusing technical jargon. We are very pleased with
the results.”
In
Argentina, 11,830 election operators were tasked with capturing and
transmitting the tallying reports (called “telegrams” in Argentina) coming from
10,009 polling centres and 1,130 digital hubs. Those operators interacted
directly with Smartmatic technology and showed how pleased they were with it in
the survey. “The fact that election operators are expressing such level of
satisfaction with our technologies fills us with pride,” added Fabiola.
Smartmatic
has a team of five UX experts, who pass along the basic principles of this
practice to the rest of the organization. Fabiola defines her team’s work as a
passion for exploring, learning, creating, and developing technology always
with the end user in mind. “We strive to offer products and services that are
really user-centered. We work as hard as we can to solve the challenges that
thousands of nameless heroes deal with during an election.”
Focusing on UX is not exclusive to Smartmatic. Leaders
in other industries, such as Google and Amazon, also employ this practice.
However, Smartmatic deals with elections, where user-friendliness takes on an
even bigger role. “Elections are key for the stability and democracy of any
country. The responsibility of having results processed efficiently and
transparently is an enormous challenge. To deliver success, we have to
understand the depth of the processes these election operatives are executing,
and the legal framework that rules the election. We also need to keep in mind
at all times two key elements: security and transparency.”
Our UX team
is already thinking about their next challenge. They are finding ways to apply
what they learned in Argentina to future projects. As Fabiola states, “Learning
never stops. We need to learn from every comment and suggestion. There is no
such thing as negative feedback. Despite our success, we need to put away all the
praise in a drawer, so we don’t develop a ‘know-it-all’ attitude. We have to
keep working together and learn from every experience.”
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