Designs on our way of life

Hello World: Where Design Meets Life. By Alice Rawsthorn. Hamish Hamilton, €25.20.

One of the controversial Palm Beach County ballot cards. Photo: Getty

**Hello World: Where Design Meets Life**

**By Alice Rawsthorn**

**Hamish Hamilton, €25.20**

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The nail-biting race between George W Bush and Al Gore for the 2000 US presidency reached an improbable crescendo with the 'hanging chads' controversy in Florida, notoriously caused by a mechanical fault with the voting machines.

Less well-known, but just as momentous, was a design failure that may have decisively swung one of the closest elections in American presidential history.