Bringing the user design process to the political advertising world

In political advertising, strategists typically refer to work as “audience-centric.” Each piece of creative and copy is tested to see which will garner the cheapest clicks or highest donation. For instance: bright red buttons and direct-to-camera videos of a recognizable figure tend to work better to get someone to donate than a static display image. I can see which pieces of creative receive the most clicks and use those learnings to inform my next campaign. But, a deeper level of user research (that may or may not be possible for a typical campaign with fewer resources) can help inform a better, even more audience-centric end product.

A typical voter registration ads campaign would involve vetting the space to pick the voter registration tool with the least friction, identifying your target audience, writing copy and creative that appeals to that group, placing ads on multiple platforms, then evaluating results. A truly user centric approach to a similar campaign would look a bit different, with some of those more informal aspects built into a process and formalized. Below, I’ve transmitted parts of the normal ads strategy planning process into a user design process. This way, the ads strategist has more data and more feedback to create a better end product.

First, I would identify the pains and gains that a typical person faces when trying to complete the job of voter registration. I would do this through personal research, like a focus group, or in-depth survey, rather than the general, hands-off brainstorm that may happen in the typical ads space. The pains and gains I find would be the result of real information from potential voters.

Some pains might include:

• Inability to print and mail their voter registration form
• Confusion over when they have to register
• Uncertainty over which party to pick

And some gains could be:

• Ability to register to vote over the course of their normal day, like at the post office or DMV
• Not having to wait between registering and voting

Some of these problems are baked into our legal system and would be alleviated with more progressive voting legislation, like same day or automatic registration. But others provide a useful starting point to the process of identifying what the user really needs to vote online.

After identifying pains and gains, I begin a product tear down of voter registration tools and ads that already exist. On one level, this kind of landscape research is a typical part of the ads process. But, it’s unlikely that I would do a regimented tear down of tools and current ads and identify which elements can alleviate certain pains and gains. A more formal process ensures we won’t miss anything.

On a few [redacted] online voter registration tools, I found the following problems:

• So many options online! How does the typical user know which one to use?
• Too much friction. The tool had me go through four slides before I found out that I was ineligible to register to vote online.
• Repeated asks to sign up to receive text messages and calls. I don’t want more communication, I just want to register.
• Filled out a form, only to be directed to print and mail it. I’m registering online for a reason!

Again, some of these problems are legislative. Massachusetts, for instance, doesn’t allow people without in-state IDs to register online. My user journey, so far, is leading me to a legislative solution to solve all problems rather than a digital solution that may only work as a stop-gap. But still, I’m learning that there are things that can be done that make it easier.

When auditing existing ads, I found these problems:

• Not enough information in the ad, so it’s not clear when I have to register
• Confusing message. Am I registering to vote or getting a mail-in ballot? Can anyone use a mail-in ballot?

There are still some questions I need to answer, but now I’m better equipped to do so:

• Which audience will I be able to target most effectively?
• How can I solve some user problems with voter registration, even though the larger issues may lie in legislation?
• What’s the quickest MVP I can get live so we can start processing results?

Next, I’ll set up an agile work system to get a bare bones campaign (otherwise known as an MVP) live to test my audience and messaging. This could look like a single platform, low-budget ads campaign that uses the best registration tool I’ve found and copy and creative that addresses the most immediate problems I’ve identified (like questions about timing and mail in ballots). This is a pretty normal part of campaign planning, too: a “test balloon campaign” that will give us feedback from a small audience. But even these campaigns may involve multiple platforms and a higher level of budget. Thinking of this as an MVP rather than a test allows the strategist to get the earliest possible product live, at a lower budget level, and get feedback sooner.

With my first agile campaign up, I can see which creative is most effective and how long each user lingers on each page of the registration tool. This data evaluation process is similar to that outlined at the top, but now I’m starting at a place of deeper initial research and a strict agile process. Eventually, I will create a comprehensive campaign that has a much deeper understanding of what the user really needs from me.

In the political context, this process has some weaknesses. I imagined the process as one with unlimited budget, bandwidth, staff hours, and lead-in time of several months before campaign launch. In politics, most of that typically doesn’t happen. The process outlined here is likely unrealistic with the constraints often faced in the space, like budget limitations and much shorter timelines. But, the guidelines provide useful options that a strategist could use, even if they can’t do it all. For instance, a thorough and thoughtful teardown of existing ad marketing campaigns is something that most strategists do, to a point, even without the kind of intensity outlined in our approach. The strategist could also conduct a survey of potential voters, even if they don’t have the resources to conduct a full focus group. Even with limits on budget and time, picking and choosing parts of the design process could have scalable and effective ramifications.