Beyond the Costume: Design Anthropologist Dr. Dori Tunstall Unmasks the Cultural Politics of Everyday Visuals

OCTOBER 2026 — Halloween is traditionally celebrated as a season of transformation, elaborate disguise, and collective storytelling. Yet, beneath the veneer of ghost stories, haunted houses, and satirical costumes lies a deeper, more systemic infrastructure of cultural meaning. What happens when society looks past the superficial spectacles of the season to interrogate the cultural signifiers hidden in plain sight?

In the latest installment of her ongoing PRINT series, renowned design anthropologist Dr. Dori Tunstall turns her critical eye toward this intersection of seasonal pageantry, civic participation, and visual culture. As the author of Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook, Tunstall brings a distinctive and urgent perspective to contemporary design. Through a minimalist yet profound format—utilizing precisely 100 words and a single image each month—she investigates how design fundamentally dictates what societies see, what collective beliefs are reinforced, and whose stories are prioritized or erased.

This month, however, Tunstall’s exploration of systemic design expands far beyond the traditional boundaries of Halloween symbolism, pivoting sharply toward the visual architecture of modern democracy. By juxtaposing the frameworks of cultural disguise with the overwhelming machinery of civic engagement, she challenges creators, citizens, and policymakers to reconsider how information architecture shapes political destiny.

Main Facts: The Intersection of Design, Democracy, and Cultural Justice

At the core of Dr. Tunstall’s latest monthly dispatch is a critical evaluation of how graphic and digital design influences civic participation. Civic engagement—particularly the mechanics of voting—is frequently treated as a purely administrative or legal process. However, Tunstall argues that it is fundamentally a design artifact.

The primary factual anchor of her commentary centers on the sheer density of modern ballots, specifically within high-stakes political ecosystems like California and Los Angeles County. Navigating an election cycle requires citizens to process vast amounts of complex data under immense time constraints. Without intentional, human-centered design, this administrative friction leads directly to voter fatigue, disenfranchisement, and low turnout.

Key elements of this discourse include:

• The Design Anthropology Framework: Dr. Tunstall’s monthly PRINT series utilizes micro-essays (100 words) paired with singular visual artifacts to decode the hidden structural biases and cultural impacts of design.
• The Voting Experience Mapping: Drawing on her previous work with AIGA’s Design for Democracy initiative, Tunstall maps the civic journey into four distinct pillars: Registering, Getting Information, Voting, and Monitoring Choices.
• The Information Overload Crisis: In regions like Los Angeles, voters are tasked not only with selecting government officials but also with rendering decisions on an overwhelming number of state and local ballot measures.
• Digital Innovation in Civic Tech: The introduction of gamified, interactive digital tools—such as LAist’s Voter Game Plan+ and independent projects like Candidate Match 2026—represents a necessary evolution in how political information is packaged and delivered to an increasingly digital-first electorate.

Chronology: From Civic Disillusionment to Gamified Democracy

To understand the current state of electoral design, it is vital to trace the historical evolution of how voting information has been communicated to the public over the past several decades.

Phase 1: The Analogue Era and Bureaucratic Opacity (Late 20th Century)

For generations, the mechanics of voting were defined by dense, text-heavy government pamphlets, paper-based registration drives, and confusing ballot layouts. The design paradigm of this era was rooted in legal compliance rather than user experience. Ballots were designed by bureaucrats for bureaucrats, resulting in notorious pitfalls like the infamous "butterfly ballot" of the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election in Florida—a textbook example of poor visual design directly altering political outcomes.

Phase 2: The Advocacy and Standardization Movement (2000–2010s)

In the wake of recurring electoral administration crises, professional design organizations stepped in. Initiatives like AIGA’s Design for Democracy—an effort Dr. Dori Tunstall actively contributed to—sought to apply universal design principles to the entire voting process. Designers worked to standardize typography, improve the legibility of polling place signage, and streamline registration forms. This era successfully established that clear communication is a foundational pillar of a healthy republic.

Phase 3: The Digital Transition and Information Overload (2010s–2020s)

As elections moved into the digital age, the nature of the challenge shifted. Citizens were no longer starved for information; they were drowning in it. News fragmentation, social media noise, and the sheer volume of local propositions created an environment where voters felt paralyzed by choice. Traditional voter guides failed to engage younger, digital-native demographics who expected intuitive, frictionless digital experiences.

Phase 4: The Gamification of Civic Literacy (Present Day)

Entering the 2026 election cycle, civic tech developers and regional newsrooms have begun adopting innovative engagement strategies. By borrowing interface patterns from popular consumer apps and media platforms—such as BuzzFeed-style quiz formats—platforms like LAist have redefined how voters interact with complex political data. Dr. Tunstall’s recent analysis captures this exact turning point, examining how playful, interactive design can lower the barrier to entry for democratic participation.

Supporting Data: The Mechanics of Modern Voter Fatigue

An analysis of voter behavior and ballot complexity reveals why design interventions are no longer optional luxuries, but democratic necessities.

In major metropolitan areas, the modern ballot resembles a multi-volume legal contract rather than a simple ballot card. For instance, voters in Los Angeles County during major general elections face a staggering ballot load:

• Elected Offices: Dozens of federal, state, and municipal positions, ranging from the U.S. Presidency and Congress to the state legislature, county supervisors, and local judges.
• Ballot Measures: In recent cycles, California voters have been asked to decide on upward of 20 to 22 concurrent state and local propositions, covering complex issues from tax policy and environmental regulation to criminal justice reform and housing infrastructure.

According to civic data studies, the average time required to thoroughly research every candidate and proposition using traditional text-based guides exceeds several hours. When citizens are confronted with this level of cognitive load, three primary behavioral responses occur:

1. Voter Drop-off: Voters complete the top-tier revenue races (like President or Governor) but leave down-ballot measures and local offices entirely blank.
2. Abstention: Entire blocks of the electorate skip voting altogether out of fear of making an uninformed decision.
3. Randomized Guessing: Voters make arbitrary selections on complex propositions without understanding the long-term legal or financial consequences.

Digital tools that utilize visual matching algorithms—such as the LAist Candidate Match Up Quiz featured in Dr. Tunstall’s analysis—directly mitigate these metrics. By distilling complex policy stances into binary choices across core topics, these interfaces reduce cognitive friction, transforming an intimidating bureaucratic chore into an accessible, engaging discovery process.

Official Responses and Perspectives on Civic Design

The integration of gamification and human-centered design into political journalism and electoral administration has sparked robust dialogue among designers, journalists, and civic technologists.

Dr. Dori Tunstall’s perspective emphasizes that design is never neutral. In her commentary on the LAist Voter Game Plan+, she notes:

"Through AIGA’s Design for Democracy, I helped map the voting experience—Registering, Getting Information, Voting, and Monitoring Choices. In California, getting information is overwhelming. I vote for government officials, but also for 22 State and LA City ballot measures… LAist’s Voter Game Plan+ reduces the overwhelm. Their Buzzfeed Quiz-fication of the LA Mayor and State Governor races brought fun, as I picked between two statements on nine topics to find my candidate match."

Digital editors and civic product designers echo this sentiment, arguing that traditional journalism has historically struggled to translate policy nuances into actionable insights for the general public. By adopting interactive quiz formats, news organizations are not "dumbing down" politics; rather, they are recognizing that democratic health relies on meeting citizens where they are cognitively and technologically.

Independent developers are also pushing the envelope. Tools like Candidate Match 2026 represent a decentralized push toward algorithmic civic matching, allowing users to input their personal values on pressing societal topics and instantly view transparent alignments with active candidates and pending ballot measures. Supporters argue these tools foster deeper intellectual engagement by encouraging voters to reflect on why they hold certain political positions rather than relying on partisan shorthand or name recognition.

Implications: Reimagining the Architecture of Public Life

As Dr. Dori Tunstall’s ongoing PRINT series demonstrates, the implications of thoughtful design extend far beyond aesthetic appeal. They strike at the very heart of equity, representation, and justice.

1. Democratizing Access Through Clarity

When information is designed without empathy for the user, it inherently favors the privileged—those with the free time, higher education levels, and legal literacy required to decode bureaucratic jargon. By championing intuitive, gamified, and human-centered interfaces, designers can dismantle systemic barriers to civic participation. Clear design is, at its core, an act of cultural justice.

2. The Responsibility of Media and Tech Platforms

As local journalism organizations transform into civic product developers, the lines between media, technology, and governance continue to blur. Newsrooms and app developers bear a profound ethical responsibility to ensure that matching algorithms are transparent, unbiased, and immune to manipulation. The design of a quiz or a voter guide must maintain rigorous journalistic integrity while delivering a seamless user experience.

3. Broadening the Scope of Design Anthropology

Tunstall’s monthly juxtaposition of disparate cultural themes—from the performative disguises of Halloween to the hidden machinery of the voting booth—serves as a vital reminder that design shapes every facet of human experience. Whether examining the cultural narratives reinforced by seasonal costumes or the structural inclusivity of a digital ballot, society must continually ask: Who was this designed for, and who was left out?

Ultimately, Dr. Tunstall’s work challenges the design community to move past superficial decoration and embrace its role as a steward of democracy. By unmasking the hidden systems that govern daily life, designers and citizens alike can begin to construct a more inclusive, transparent, and participatory future.