Halalan admin's voice

[Mary Macapagal]

Hello, regarding the admin panel of Halalan. Do you want to add a
"voice" in error/success messages and add instructions?

Right now the status messages are plain but straightforward (ie Login
failed, The first name field is required, The candidate has been
successfully added, etc.)
Is this a design decision because Halalan is a "formal" voting app or
do you want to give it some sort of personality/voice and make
suggestions within status messages?

For example, if there are a set of errors in adding a candidate:
Whoops! You forgot to add the last name and first name of the
candidate!
or
You already added Gloria "Laki" Aquino as a candidate for President!
Why not use a different alias for a different person?

For successful actions, we can suggest the next *logical* step to the
admin:
Gloria "Laki" Aquino is now a candidate for President. (link to next
action)Do you want to add more candidates?
or
The USC elections is now open. (sample next step)You can close this
election or view partial results live here.


------

If you guys want to change the logo, this will also be a good time to
do it. :D We can relate the mascot to the voice of the admin panel and
maybe extend the metaphor into the design.

Here's a lame example. Let's say the logo is an ink bottle, the dev
blog copy can say something like: "Save ink. Vote online." We can
extend that ink theme into little details within the app, like adding
a thumbprint to the "Submit vote" button in the Voter's view and a
"Thanks for voting. We'll keep it secret and count the results really
really quickly!" message from Inky after submitting a ballot.


(Sorry for the long post, to conclude)

Please weigh in on whether we should keep the panel messages formal,
what kind of voice you'd like to use and any ideas on the mascot/logo,
tagline. Corny and cheesy will do - we can cross-out the unacceptable
suggestions later. Here are some ideas to get us started:

- Tree/paper mascot (similar to ink) Save the trees/Hold a paperless
election
- Halalan: an online voting system. It's free. Like democracy.
- Because democracy is priceless. (eeew... I know)
- Tally marks logo: Tallying is so kindergarten. Count better AND
faster.

That's it. Please reply with suggestions (or heckle the absurd ones if
you like).

[Waldemar Bautista]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:29 AM, Mary Macapagal
<mary.ma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, regarding the admin panel of Halalan. Do you want to add a
> "voice" in error/success messages and add instructions?
>
> Right now the status messages are plain but straightforward (ie Login
> failed, The first name field is required, The candidate has been
> successfully added, etc.)
> Is this a design decision because Halalan is a "formal" voting app or
> do you want to give it some sort of personality/voice and make
> suggestions within status messages?
>
> For example, if there are a set of errors in adding a candidate:
> Whoops! You forgot to add the last name and first name of the
> candidate!
> or
> You already added Gloria "Laki" Aquino as a candidate for President!
> Why not use a different alias for a different person?
>
> For successful actions, we can suggest the next *logical* step to the
> admin:
> Gloria "Laki" Aquino is now a candidate for President. (link to next
> action)Do you want to add more candidates?
> or
> The USC elections is now open. (sample next step)You can close this
> election or view partial results live here.

I think this is a good suggestion. The only reason that the messages
are like that is we are lazy to think of better messages. Hehe.

In actual forms, we are relying on the default messages of
CodeIgniter. We can override them if we like.

> If you guys want to change the logo, this will also be a good time to
> do it. :D We can relate the mascot to the voice of the admin panel and
> maybe extend the metaphor into the design.

I do feel that an update to the logo is necessary. But I leave the
decision to JM. I think it would be better for you and anyone
interested to discuss this with JM. In this mailing list, of course.
Hehe.

--
Waldemar Amado Bautista

[Rystraum Gamonez]

Hi Mary,

I can't speak for the default messages and if whether or not it was a design decision, but the error message strings (among others) are enclosed in a lang file (application/language/$lang/halalan_lang.php) and is easily customizable for every deploy.

If I remember correctly, our "mascots" are named Hal and Alan. They're bouncers by profession. (Okay, that last one I made that up.)

My personal stand is that we might want to keep the defaults in. They're safe defaults and would not rub the majority the wrong way. We'd want them not to change things as much as possible upon installation because it's easier. Convention over configuration. Although adding the next step suggestions on the notifications is a good thing.

Rystraum Fabe Gamonez

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:29 AM, Mary Macapagal <mary.ma...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Wigi Vei Oliveros]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Rystraum Gamonez <ryst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My personal stand is that we might want to keep the defaults in. They're
> safe defaults and would not rub the majority the wrong way. We'd want them
> not to change things as much as possible upon installation because it's
> easier. Convention over configuration. Although adding the next step
> suggestions on the notifications is a good thing.
>
> Rystraum Fabe Gamonez

Maybe we can just put a customizable file for overriding the default messages.

--
Wigi Vei A. Oliveros

[Mary Macapagal]

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 6:43 PM, Waldemar Bautista <waldemar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I do feel that an update to the logo is necessary.  But I leave the
decision to JM.  I think it would be better for you and anyone
interested to discuss this with JM.  In this mailing list, of course.
Hehe.

I can't draw to save my life either. :) But everyone is welco-- REQUIRED to talk about Halalan and what's it about. The developers should have as much say in the matter as the designers (maybe more) since you are the ones who know Halalan's features, limitations, future add-ons, etc. It would be awesome if everyone participated in the discussion. We can badger JM to make a new logo based on the ideas later. :)

Sorry kung makulit. I want people to *get* what Halalan is. Right now they only know that it's free and open source but there are also other free voting apps out there. So what makes Halalan awesome?

We can say that it's made by UnPLuG (tama ba). That in itself can be a selling point. It's made by people who are FOSS advocates, ADHD people who hate boring installation guides, etc. We can talk about that in the dev's blog. "We love making free, open-source software and can't wait to give it away."

I want the site's copy to be something that'll make users want to go: SHUT UP AND GIMME THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON NOW. Sort of like these:
http://panic.com/transmit/
http://foundation.zurb.com/

I guess I just want the devs to talk about Halalan and what's so special about it, what are its unique features, what were you thinking when you made it, who are your *dream* customers, what's your goal (to have it deployed in all schools in the Philippines?) This way we can have a clear idea of what it is and how to "sell" it. I posted it here in the dev-group because you guys know more about Halalan (Hi Wally) and why you're making it. So please please talk more. Don't think that it's bragging (or please do, if that helps). :)

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 6:44 PM, Rystraum Gamonez <ryst...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Mary,

I can't speak for the default messages and if whether or not it was a design decision, but the error message strings (among others) are enclosed in a lang file (application/language/$lang/halalan_lang.php) and is easily customizable for every deploy.

Waaah, thank you so much for showing me this. I'm so amazed haha. Now I want to mess with my local install and add a martian language! This is ten shades of ozam. Is it easy for a new user to add their custom status messages? Or is this an obscure, complicated set-up for ninja users only?

 

If I remember correctly, our "mascots" are named Hal and Alan. They're bouncers by profession. (Okay, that last one I made that up.)

:( Would've been awesome if true (except for the bouncers part haha). We could have a progress bar at the top of the voter's view showing Hal moving towards Alan. Then they can meet up and shake hands like in the logo when the voter finally submits his ballot.
 

My personal stand is that we might want to keep the defaults in. They're safe defaults and would not rub the majority the wrong way. We'd want them not to change things as much as possible upon installation because it's easier. Convention over configuration. Although adding the next step suggestions on the notifications is a good thing.

You're right. I didn't realize the Inky messages (if made default) might be a source of frustration for users. But a chatty admin voice is cool, no? :D Maybe we can use the Inky voice as an option if (and when) we want to offer Halalan hosting as a service. Were you guys planning on that? No? Too costly? Ok. :|

[Waldemar Bautista]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Mary Macapagal
<mary.ma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 6:44 PM, Rystraum Gamonez <ryst...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Mary,
>>
>> I can't speak for the default messages and if whether or not it was a
>> design decision, but the error message strings (among others) are enclosed
>> in a lang file (application/language/$lang/halalan_lang.php) and is easily
>> customizable for every deploy.
>
>
> Waaah, thank you so much for showing me this. I'm so amazed haha. Now I want
> to mess with my local install and add a martian language! This is ten shades
> of ozam. Is it easy for a new user to add their custom status messages? Or
> is this an obscure, complicated set-up for ninja users only?

Just a note. We used to have an updated English and Filipino
languages. But life goes on and the Filipino translation was left
behind. And in the current development, the English messages are
directly in the code. It would be much appreciated if anyone can pull
someone to the project to do translations. This is a great starting
point for new developers.

Mary, if you could provide some questions about what you are looking
for then we will be glad to answer them. It is easier for me to
answer questions than to create an "article" about Halalan. My
writing skills are regressing badly.

--
Waldemar Amado Bautista

[Mary Macapagal]

On Jan 30, 8:28 pm, Waldemar Bautista <waldemarbauti...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Mary Macapagal

> Mary, if you could provide some questions about what you are looking
> for then we will be glad to answer them.  It is easier for me to
> answer questions than to create an "article" about Halalan.  My
> writing skills are regressing badly.
>

Ok. I'll make a list and post them later. Thanks.

[Rystraum Gamonez]

Halalan as a project has matured in a way that we've covered the majority of the use-cases in running a voting system. It's not necessarily bug-free (I'm sure there are stuff there that needs squishing), it's just that there is nothing more to add without compromising the simplicity of its architecture. The project goals are: easy-to-use and secure open-source voting system for student/organization elections and this has been met. Or at the very least, I don't see any signs that says the contrary.

I guess it's high time that we put up implementation goals then? Something like: "To be used by all student organizations in 5 years" with milestones every year or so or something.

The next step is offering it as a sign-up service but this is out of scope for Halalan per se. Offering it as a sign up service is as simple as assigning proper directory permissions, automatically creating the tables, running the install script (injecting proper values somewhere) and basically automating the setup. This should not be built in the Halalan codebase. Think wordpress.com vs wordpress.org.

But, as Mary pointed out, there will be a cost in doing this and you have to create revenue (e.g. donations, freemium, etc) to cover these costs. Aside from the monetary cost, human resources (development, testing) is actually the bigger concern here. This is, essentially, a startup on its own.

Then again, I feel like the project has always been developed in a way that we just want to make usable software. It's a typical "scratching our own itch" kind of software. It solves our use-case, and if other people discover Halalan and it works for them, then good. Otherwise, life goes on.
It's not like we want to conquer the world using Halalan. (or do we?)

Conquering the world vs making software for myself does not necessarily mean one is better than the other. They're just different goals and by all means, software (good or bad) has always been written with either one (or both!) of these goals in mind. Ultimately, project goals influence where we decide to spend our time in. Down to the "if" we should spend any time at all.

Just my TLDR; 0.02.

Rystraum Fabe Gamonez

[Mary Macapagal]

Here are the questions, as promised.

About Halalan

1. What is it? (Secure, simple, online voting system for student and organization elections.  -Ry) Anything else?
   
2. Can you give examples of what you consider its competitors/similar products?
3. What sets Halalan apart from #2? According to Rystraum, you made it for unplug, then offered it free for orgs who have a similar need. But why did you make it in the first place? What did those competitors lack that you included in Halalan?

About the Users

1. Who are the usual users? (Do you have stats on the # of Halalan downloads?)
2. Do the users/downloaders write back or give feedback? How? (fb, twitter, personal email, press release, etc)
3. Who are your ideal users? Whom did you build this for? (Student orgs -Rystraum) Does that tally with the users you encountered in #1?
   
4. What are the common user problems? (note: I've read through the issues page - is that it or is there some other channel I can monitor to find possible UI improvements? Do they email you guys directly?)

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 10:50 PM, Rystraum Gamonez <ryst...@gmail.com> wrote:

Halalan as a project has matured in a way that we've covered the majority of the use-cases in running a voting system. It's not necessarily bug-free (I'm sure there are stuff there that needs squishing), it's just that there is nothing more to add without compromising the simplicity of its architecture. The project goals are: easy-to-use and secure open-source voting system for student/organization elections and this has been met. Or at the very least, I don't see any signs that says the contrary.

I guess it's high time that we put up implementation goals then? Something like: "To be used by all student organizations in 5 years" with milestones every year or so or something.

-- yes. :D Seems like all the main features are already there. We just have to "market" it. Targeting all UP orgs (except, y'know that other unplug) seems like a good place to start.

Then again, I feel like the project has always been developed in a way that we just want to make usable software. It's a typical "scratching our own itch" kind of software. It solves our use-case, and if other people discover Halalan and it works for them, then good. Otherwise, life goes on.
It's not like we want to conquer the world using Halalan. (or do we?)

 

Hehe. But you need users to make usable software. Otherwise how are we going to gauge the success of the app? Actually I prefer pizza-donation frequency as a measure of success but the number of happy, grateful users will do. (choz) Now I'm confused. You're making a lot of updates and bug fixes for something that will be used just for unplug. Are you sure you don't *want* or care that other orgs are missing out on this awesome app you made?
 

Conquering the world vs making software for myself does not necessarily mean one is better than the other. They're just different goals and by all means, software (good or bad) has always been written with either one (or both!) of these goals in mind. Ultimately, project goals influence where we decide to spend our time in. Down to the "if" we should spend any time at all.

Just my TLDR; 0.02.

Rystraum Fabe Gamonez

+1
We really need to set a goal so we won't get carried away or make sure that we're working on the right thing. I agree with the one you said up top about targeting the whole univ. I wonder what the others think about that.