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Why have we had such a hard time waiting for the #Election2020 
Presidential call and final ballot count? A thread on the psychology and user-experience of waiting in an election.
Presidential call and final ballot count? A thread on the psychology and user-experience of waiting in an election.
Frustration builds when we wait if 1) the wait time is different from what we've expected or experienced in the past; 2) we don't have a clear sense of when our waiting will end; 3) we are facing a complex system that isn't easy to understand. #Election2020 ticks all these boxes.
ticks all these boxes.
This election is remarkably different in the amount of time required to process everything due to the scale of mail-in ballots in the context of COVID-19. It betrays all past experiences of "Election Night" and therefore is producing a lot of anxiety and frustration.
#Election2020 is similar to a buffering icon: we are asked to wait without a clear sense of when the waiting will end. We keep hitting refresh in the hopes that things will progress. Instead, we're left spinning our wheels. This produces a sense of powerlessness for many people.
is similar to a buffering icon: we are asked to wait without a clear sense of when the waiting will end. We keep hitting refresh in the hopes that things will progress. Instead, we're left spinning our wheels. This produces a sense of powerlessness for many people.
The ways that the ballots are handled and reported is an incredibly complex process in #Election2020 , and complex systems are - by their very nature - opaque to some degree. Transparency is difficult to achieve & mixed with forcing people to wait creates a frustrated population.
, and complex systems are - by their very nature - opaque to some degree. Transparency is difficult to achieve & mixed with forcing people to wait creates a frustrated population.
A complex system like the #Election2020 has created massive shifts from norms and timing, create speculation. Waiting among complexity often forces us to interpret the wait time & speculate about why things are different. As a result, theories emerge as a way to provide answers.
has created massive shifts from norms and timing, create speculation. Waiting among complexity often forces us to interpret the wait time & speculate about why things are different. As a result, theories emerge as a way to provide answers.
In future years, good "user design" of elections would set the expectation for wait times right out front, calling it "Election Week" or "Election Month" instead of creating hopes of instant gratification of results. Setting expectations with how time will unfold is key.
Citing @ryanbuell, "operational transparency" into complex systems helps alleviate the anxiety, frustration, and powerlessness felt when people have to wait for something important (especially when they don't understand what's happening behind the scenes).
We all also need to recognize that our wait times are not wasted times; instead, our waiting is an investment in the importance of every single vote cast. Every vote should count & it will take time, so we wait. And our waiting benefits those votes that haven't yet been counted.
Finally, I think we can all use this wait time to imagine a future that does not yet exist & innovate toward that future. Waiting offers us the unique opportunity to ask, "What do I hope comes on the other side of my waiting?" Here, we can see the future we want & work toward it.
