Visualize the Vote template

A way to quickly reveal preferences and opinions

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Visualize the Vote

Visualize the Vote template FAQs

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Use this template to get everyone’s input, giving each person the opportunity to indicate preferences and opinions before final decisions are made.

By democratizing the decision-making process with dot voting, you ensure that no single voice or idea takes precedence; instead, everyone is encouraged to be judicious for the sake of finding the favored option.

This is a simple method to employ, and offers a good degree of flexibility. For instance, when using it to pick the best solution among many, you can give everyone a token to cast a single vote. Or, if you need to consider details or prioritize a subset of alternatives, give everyone multiple voting tokens. You can also provide different types of indicators to address different issues (highest priority, best opportunities).

Whatever the need, dot voting provides a quick catalyst for discussion, moving a project toward realization.

The visualize the vote template helps you:

Quickly get broad alignment
Engage all stakeholders and give everyone a voice in the decision-making process
Determine top priorities democratically
Spark discussion and build action items

How to use the visualize the vote template

To use Mural’s visualize the vote template, follow the steps outlined below.

Step 1: Describe the decision that you’re making

Use the first section of the template to describe what you need to decide with your team. This should be no longer than a phrase or one sentence — you can provide broader context either with pre-work (a good solution for asynchronous collaboration) or at the outset of your meeting.

Step 2: Outline the voting criteria

The next step is to include the criteria on which the votes should be based — this will ensure that your participants fully understand the impact of their votes and that your outcome reflects the sentiment of your team.

Step 3: Outline the concepts

Once you’ve made it clear what decision you’re asking the team to vote on and the factors that should weigh into their votes, it’s time to outline the concepts you’ll be voting on to determine the best solutions. Use sticky notes to ideate and craft draft solutions, making sure to give your team multiple options to choose from (each one with multiple elements and considerations — this may help with refinement down the line).

Step 4: Vote!

Have each participant use the star icons assigned to their name to vote on their overall favorite idea or concept, as well as record their votes for favorite details (this could be particular components of a solution, or a way to conduct tiered voting).

Tips for running a visualize the vote template exercise

To get the most out of your voting session, you should:

Carefully prepare your team so that they are as informed as possible about the idea or concept that they’ll be voting on
Easily share and manage permissions to your mural so that everyone can get involved and engaged
Keep your voting record in a single, shared space so that you can reference your decision-making process down the road

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Visualize the Vote template FAQs

What is dot voting in design thinking?

Dot voting is a technique commonly used in design thinking to prioritize ideas or options during the ideation phase of a project. It is a democratic and visual method that allows participants to express their preferences and indicate which ideas they find most valuable or relevant.

Here's how dot voting typically works:

Idea generation: First, a group of participants generates a list of ideas or possible solutions to a problem or challenge. These ideas can be represented as sticky notes or written on a whiteboard or flip chart.
Allocation of dots: Each participant is given a predetermined number of dots, typically in the form of small adhesive dots or stickers. The number of dots can vary depending on the context, but it is usually limited to prevent excessive distribution.
Voting: Participants review the ideas and place their dots next to the ones they consider most promising or impactful. They can distribute their dots among multiple ideas or concentrate them on a single idea, depending on their preferences.
Visualizing results: Once all participants have placed their dots, the group examines the distribution and identifies the ideas that received the highest number of votes. These highly voted ideas are often seen as potential areas to explore further or prioritize in the design process.

Dot voting provides a quick and visual way to gather opinions and surface the most popular ideas within a group. It encourages active participation and collaboration while ensuring that everyone's voice is heard. By leveraging dot voting, design teams can focus their efforts on the most promising concepts and move forward in the design process with a shared understanding of priorities.