Hawkfish’s vote-by-mail product was a mobile-first web application designed to help voters confirm their registration, request a mail-in ballot, and track that request. Political organizations could offer the experience under their own branding, guiding their followers through a process that was unfamiliar to many.

I led end-to-end product design for mobile and desktop experiences, creating their design system patterns and components, interactive prototypes for user testing, and high-fidelity designs for implementation.

This case study focuses on how I translated location-specific voting requirements into a guided experience that could be adapted to different partner brands.

The challenge

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many voters would be voting by mail for the first time. They needed to understand the process before providing any personal information, and know what to expect after submitting a request.

Requirements varied by state and sometimes by county. Even a shared ZIP code did not guarantee identical requirements. In addition, the sudden high volume of flight from urban areas due to the pandemic created another complication: a voter’s registered address might differ from where they needed to receive their ballot.

The experience needed to ensure that voters were given the right requirements, and kept oriented as guidance changed based on the information they provided.

Product direction

A review of existing vote-by-mail assistance services revealed different combinations of partner branding, coverage across all 50 states, language accessibility, and ease of use. No single service combined all of them. Targeted ads carrying a trusted partner’s branding offered a way to connect outreach directly to the application.

I translated this direction into a reusable white-label interface that could carry a partner’s identity into the application while maintaining consistent guidance throughout the process of requesting a ballot.

Design strategy

I used the voter’s ZIP code as the entry point to the guided experience. The system would use it to establish the initial flow and introduce the relevant next steps. It would also pre-fill address information later, reducing repeated entry while keeping those details editable.

Once the voter’s ZIP code was entered, the system could identify the county and give the voter a preview of the required steps to complete the ballot request, which in many cases included having their photo ID ready in advance.

Usability research

Early testing of the product yielded important insights:

The design didn’t factor in voter skepticism and trust.

• Participants were hesitant to take the first step of giving their ZIP code in the launch screen because, while the headline “Voting by mail is easy” offered some superficial reassurance, there were no explicit reasons given to support why.

The design didn’t explain what the process would involve

• Participants were unclear on whether to continue as, once their eligibility was validated by the system, they were dropped right into a form flow that asked for more personal information without an overview of the ballot request process. 

Responding to the user feedback, I revised the launch screen and eligibility validation screen to first explain the simplicity of the ballot request process, then to set the proper expectations on the steps to come.

Additional findings informed several other design updates:

• Support for languages beyond English, helping more voters complete the process independently.

• An option to photograph a required photo ID using the device’s camera, avoiding the need to prepare an image separately.

• A way to track the ballot request after submission, giving voters visibility into its status.

Stakeholder alignment

Some stakeholders pushed for more visual flourishes. I advocated for an approachable but restrained experience that kept attention on the instructions and reinforced the credibility of a service handling sensitive voter information.

To demonstrate the tradeoff visibly, I mocked up exaggerated interactions that stood out visually but distracted from the process. Those examples helped stakeholders see the value of the existing more conservative design, which already incorporated subtle micro-animations that supplemented certain interactions.

The resulting experience

I established a structure for the ballot-request process that could accommodate location-specific requirements while keeping voters oriented from one step to the next. Reusable form components, progress indicators, and review patterns provided consistency, while partner branding could be applied without affecting the underlying experience.

Within that model, I kept voter verification separate from ballot delivery, accommodated different ways to provide identification, and gave voters opportunities to review and correct their information before submission. These decisions addressed the variations most likely to cause confusion while maintaining a clear path through the request process.

The resulting design translated a fragmented set of requirements into a guided experience that political organizations could offer under their own identity.

The mobile interactions below show how clear instructions and visual feedback supported key moments, from capturing a photo ID to confirming a successful ballot request submission.