RTÉ Online Election Results
RTÉ is Ireland’s public service media organisation and general elections are complex logistical projects with all-day TV and radio broadcasts and full online coverage. The main goal of the online election results is to try to present the key elements of the electoral system: party seats won, candidate votes, elected candidates and party first preference as clearly as possible for mobile, tablet and desktop users on a national and constituency level.
An Election Design System
Since 2016, I have developed and iterated a simple design system of page templates, panels, components and foundations that connect to allow users to view all available election results and information.
Panels
All page templates in the election design system are composed of panels, which are re-usable patterns that can be combined in different ways in order to create custom pages of content. Each panel and its states and variants were designed for mobile, tablet and desktop breakpoints.
National Results
Users can get a good overview of all the latest election results in the country using the national results page. They can view party seat numbers, the current count status in all constituencies, latest count information, party first preferences and filter elected candidates by party.
Constituency Results
Users can use the map or dropdown on the national results page to navigate to the constituency results page for a specific constituency. They can view the same information as the national results but specific to that constituency. They can also use the vote counter panel to see how redistributed votes change candidate positions in the race for a seat.
Empty Panel States
From the time the polls close, empty states of the panels on the national and constituency results pages are displayed to signal to the user that live results will be available later.
Before the Election
In the lead-up to election day, users can browse profiles of all national electoral constituencies and candidates.
Election Live Trackers
The live tracker template on rte.ie allows journalists to post short updates in real time, which is the perfect format for election coverage. For elections, people can view updates on a national or constituency level.
You can read a case-study about my design process for RTÉ Elections here.
