My favorite digital experiences of the 2020 election

The 2020 election has evolved into the most nerve-wracking, bitterly divided event that I, and many others, have ever experienced in our adult lifetime. Add the live stream of voting results on a variety of media sources, and you have a country — reacting play-by-play — to history in the making.

Before the election, I researched every digital news experience I could find to determine which would be best for following along, and it was fairly difficult to narrow it down. Most news orgs have stepped up their game when it comes to digital presence, and I was impressed with the level of high-quality UX and attention to detail in most of the digital experiences I considered.

From highly interactive data visualizations to live and informative content feeds — here are a few of my favorite 2020 election news experiences and features.

The New York Times

The New York Times was a great foundational resource to follow through the election. It has everything you need from infographics to detailed articles and live updates. I used the app and the website.

One of the main reasons why I chose The NYT as my primary election news app is because of their reputation for producing interactive and clean but highly detailed infographics.

I’m a visual learner. If I can see what someone is talking about, I can consume information at a faster and more accurate rate, so the NYT election experiences were easy for me to pick up and understand.

I am also a power user of election maps. I love to dig into states and counties and see, from a detailed perspective, how certain regions are voting. I especially like to do this for the state I live in and states where my family and friends live. Even if the election does not turn out my way, I want to know about the small victories in the places that matter most to me. The NYT not only facilitated this need, but also surfaced data that I didn’t even know I cared about.

Politico

Politico does a great job at holding your hand through the election. This is great experience for those who are less knowledgeable about the election process. I used Politico’s responsive website on my phone and downloaded the app after a few days.

Politico doesn’t just show you numbers, they explain what’s happening. For people who may not understand the election process, I would recommend this experience because the interface is easy to navigate and data points are explained.

I’ve enjoyed following Politico after the presidential race as well because there are still voting results outstanding (as of the beginning of Nov 2020), and Politico surfaces those outstanding updates in a way that keeps me quickly informed. I follow politics on a regular basis, but not enough to understand the full election process. When following through Politico, I don’t have to dig into specific states to interpret the numbers, they will tell me what I should look at, when and why.

CNN

CNN is another great foundational resource, but even more so if you’re into a granular level of customization. I primarily used CNN on my laptop because it was easier to customize my experiences on a larger screen, but also used the responsive website on my phone.

CNN really stood out when I was looking for a user experience that allowed me to customize an election map and predict outcomes. CNN’s “Road to 270: Build Your Own” map feature was easy to use, customize and understand. I enjoyed adjusting state outcomes here and there, especially before and during election day.

The “My Election” feature, which allows a user to select which state presidential, senate, house and/or gubernatorial elections they would like a quick view of, was also really nice. I especially liked this feature at the beginning of the election when states were quickly reporting numbers. I could follow the states I cared about while watching the national map simultaneously.

I also appreciated that CNN had countdown timers displaying when their UI would refresh. I didn’t have to constantly refresh my browser because I knew it would update every 10 seconds.

Preferences are subjective. One big differentiator about me from others is that I’m not a big fan of watching my news on TV — but I realize that many people prefer to follow the election on television while peering down at a phone source every once in a while.

When I questioned my husband about his election news preferences, his go-to’s were article heavy sources such as AP news or Reuters. He prefers to read about the detail as opposed to digging into it independent and enjoys a good infographic when he wants a quick update.

I’d be interested in hearing about your favorites as well.

Regardless of where you get your news, there is more transparency than ever into the real-time progress and events surrounding elections. We’re a greater informed voter population than any other time in history. It’s exciting to see news sources facilitate this information transfer with higher quality and attention to the user’s experience every election year.