Co-authored with data scientist Susanna Supalla.
At long last, the never-ending 2020 Election cycle finally finds itself coming to a close, and campaign organizers across the country take a well-deserved moment to breathe, to sleep, and to prepare themselves to fight another day in the next campaign cycle.
Voter protection organizations, however, are entering a new period of high alert: in the period following elections, mandatory voter file maintenance takes place, and Secretaries of State across the country are reviewing voter rolls to determine who should be dropped from their voter files.
Regular maintenance of the voter file is a…
In the early months of 2020, the Alloy team met to discuss the roadmap for how our data could best serve the groups and organizations serving voter protection efforts this cycle. …
Experts in election protection convened to discuss, collaborate, and chart the way forward for protecting voters’ rights in the upcoming election cycle amidst the greatest public health crisis of a generation.
In the days leading up to the Wisconsin presidential primary in April, Americans watched on as politicians in the state played a tug-of-war over how to handle an election in the midst of a pandemic. …
What happens when you bring together progressive data practitioners from across the ecosystem to collaborate on our toughest data challenges?
On December 17, 2019, Alloy hosted a roundtable of 14 progressive data practitioners in Washington, D.C.
The gist was simple: a forum where data practitioners come together to generously share their experiences and ideas, develop best practices, and collaborate on how to address common challenges in the progressive ecosystem.
There was no pitching at this gathering. No selling. No fundraising. No recruiting.
Instead, experts came together to roll up their sleeves, work through big challenges, and actively co-design the future…
Human-Centered Design Meets Political Tech
Meaningful change doesn’t start with wild ideas. It starts, rather, with stories.
In the past few months of working at Alloy, I’ve had the great pleasure of sitting down with data practitioners across the progressive ecosystem and hearing their stories. There’s nothing they need to prepare for these conversations; nothing they need to fundraise for, or pitch to anyone, or problem-solve. Instead, we ask them to share their stories with us, and we listen. We ask questions to dig deeper. We listen more. And then, we design.
Our conversations with these practitioners usually start in…
Co-authored with designer Sarah Calandro
Two mindsets every designer and researcher should embrace
Human-centered design — and the research that goes along with it — is an ambiguous world. The nuances of humanity are messy and hard to pin down; so how can we approach our work to ensure that we’re driving to solid product decisions? What can we do to ensure that we’re designing unique, transformational, and differentiated solutions that fit seamlessly into people’s lives? After having been around the block with excellent, mediocre, and sometimes flat-out bad teams, we realized there were two critical mindsets that made all the difference.
Mindset 1: Look for inspiration, not proof
We’re gonna go out on a…
Allison Abbott
Design Researcher and Strategist; never not learning, never not in wonder. Currently @alloydotus . Formerly @peerinsight , @capitalonelabs , UVa alumna. she/her
