Author: Grace Holley| Major: Graphic Design | Semester: Spring 2025

My name is Grace Holley, and I am a Graphic Design major in the School of Art within
the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Over the course of the Spring 2025 semester, I have
been working with Professor David Chioffi, to explore how user-centered design impacts voter
education materials. User-centered design is a process that puts the experiences and needs of
people first in order to create effective solutions. This process involves understanding the
context, identifying user requirements, designing with the user in mind, and evaluating outcomes
to ensure those needs are met. With Arkansas having one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the
country, I wanted to examine what effective design could look like for voter education materials
and how better design could encourage voter participation.

Going into this project I knew that I wanted to focus on civic design and voting in
Arkansas but I initially struggled on how to bring these two areas together. What ultimately drew
me to voter participation was Arkansas’s consistently low voter turnout, paired with a lack of
accessible, clear, and easy to navigate voting resources. Additionally, there has been limited
research as to why Arkansas has such low turnout and why there has not been a greater effort to
improve it. There is also a gap in understanding what methods could be used to update outdated
voter education resources and how these resources impact Arkansas who already face challenges
when trying to vote.

I chose Professor Chioffi to be my advisor after taking Typography I with him during my
first year in the Graphic Design program. I really enjoyed learning the technical process of
designing spreads and exploring the different methods of bookbinding. His knowledge and
appreciation for print-based work influenced my decision to approach this project through analog
materials like a pocket sized voter booklet.

Through my primary research I found that official election materials in Arkansas lack
clear and accessible design. They often fail to use plain language, offer translations, or follow
basic accessibility guidelines. My survey respondents reported struggling with finding official
voting information and that the use of overly technical language can overwhelm voters. This
informed how I approached the re-design of voter education materials.

My favorite part of this project was my design intervention. Using the Center for Civic’s
Design “Bite-Snack-Meal” framework I designed a brand identity for a voter education
campaign that included social media graphics, stickers, flyers, and voter pocketbooks. Working
closely with Professor Chioffi, he helped me ensure that my brand identity was accessible and
clear. We experimented with book binding styles to find the best fit for my pocketbook and he
guided me through the technical process of binding books by hand. I also received help from a
close friend, Jose Aguilar who translated my design materials into Spanish.

I had the opportunity to showcase my research and design intervention at the school of art
senior show. Using foam board and nails I created a voting booth and displayed my campaign
materials as well as a new research booklet of my whole process I designed and bound for the
show. This project has given me a new perspective on how design can be a tool for access and
inclusion and has made me w