[E-voting] Letter to the Public Accounts Committee

[Margaret McGaley]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 03:26:55PM -0600, Andrew wrote:
> I raise this because 'usability' is quite a vague and strange concept - 
> what is the benefit of perceived increased usability? Encouraging 
> greater participation seems one basic concrete benefit, but the 
> research shows that evoting doesn't actually achieve this - what else 
> does the touted improved usability achieve?
> 

The more usable the system is, the more people will successfully record their
vote as they intend. There are all sorts of problems that people have that can
mean a poorly designed interface is a barrier to them. I can't imagine any
kind of usability professional endorsing the Nedap system though.

Margaret

-- 
Margaret McGaley
Margaret.McGaley at redbrick.dcu.ie
http://evoting.cs.may.ie