Democratic Design

The end of September saw a few of us ‘Ausländer’ frogs here in Stuttgart having a crash course in German politics as the country went to the ballot boxes. The first barrier to our understanding of the election was, as with most local events, language. And so we entrusted translation to our native colleagues, gathering for a Sunday night Political Grill to catch the Live-stream vote count and some good frog hospitality.
 
As the evening progressed, it was confirmed that in politics, whatever the country, language is not the only barrier to understanding.

In Germany there are many potential outcomes for leadership that may arise after the elections. Coalition rule exists if no single party wins by a majority vote - rather than a ‘first past the post’ system. Coalition combinations depend on the level of top party dominance and thus the situation becomes more complex.

So, there were some cultural differences to understand.

With language and cultural differences covered, the main barrier still remained –one which German voters were also experiencing – understanding which Party stood for which policies.

This lack of comprehension of complex sets of variables, on which decisions are to be based, also relates to the design process. Both the voting booth and the drawing board require choices to be made once constraints and parameters are considered.

Each choice has pros and cons: the goal of the design process being to maximize the pros and limit the cons through a series of informed, considered decisions. An essential part of the process is therefore translating these decisions within the team, and communicating the rational behind them to clients.

So – how to inform, and how to represent the complex decision making process, in an easy and understandable, yet appealing and attractive way?

Information Visuals have been causing a buzz in graphic design and their popularity may represent peoples desire to simplify things in a world that seems ever more complex. With vast sources of detailed information now at our fingertips, people are increasingly looking to understand complex issues without having to become experts in Google search field.

Statistics and data are no longer the property of scientists and researchers but can be accessed from living rooms with the click of a mouse.

In the case of the German election, lack of voter comprehension has been addressed in the form of an Online Selector Tool. ‘Wahl-O-Mat’ generates a suggested candidate or party, based on individual’s policy preferences. A good step towards clarifying the choices involved, Online Selectors are being increasingly used in Europe, especially targeting younger voters.

Despite its apparent success in improving electoral turn out, it seems people find it difficult to trust a selection process which appears to simplify politics based on a rigid set of statements and responses. The statement correlations and Party compatability provide a recommendation on who to vote for, whilst the coallition formations which might result from their votes remain unclear. There is much speculation about how many people eventually vote for the Party selected for them by Wahl-O-Mat.

So often Information Visuals fall down trying to strike exactly this balance – over-simplification leads to a lack of transparency, trust and therefore understanding of the issues – too much information leaves the situation too complex. This difficult balance between effort and ease is something conveyers of data have always struggled with – long before the arrival of Processing and Action Script - and is what keeps the majority of current Information Visualizations bouncing between ‘Interesting’ and ‘Beautiful’ - often missing ‘Useful’

Browsing at a Stuttgart thrift store led to a find that on first appearance seemed to be a rural version of Monopoly. On further investigation (playing with it) Ökolopoly, a German game from 1984, revealed itself to be an early example of Social / Economic / Ecological Interaction Design for Systems Visualization - packaged as a board game aimed at 1-6 players aged 6 – 99!A system of cardboard cogs connects various aspects of a nation. Players choose between ‘Kybernetien’ an industrial nation and ‘Kyborien’ a developing country. Adjusting 9 cogs affects current conditions of these aspects. The cogs influence each other: with a high investment in "production" increasing "waste", which in turn decreases "standard of living", and so decreases "action points" (political acceptance) for the next round.

The goal is to guarantee stable conditions, but often the game ends in disaster. Indeed it is so difficult to balance all the aspects of the nation that there is no room for competition – players have to work turn by turn…together!

Though not a festive family favorite (maybe its lack of competition sees Monopoly being brought out instead), Ökolopoly is a great example of balance between interaction, simulation and visualization – with the cause and effect of actions displayed very apparently.

In a world of increasing information, there is a growing need to understand complexity through interactive simulation in order to make considered, collaborative choices. Could Ökolopolical takes on remote participatory design, visualized optimization and research translation methods open doors to a world of Democratic Design?