Proper Web Designs for Campaign Sites
An interesting Bnet article looks at the importance of design and look of campaign sites using the Obama, McCain example. The importance of how users view and read sites are valuable information for designers to understand how to proceed with design and this knowledge helps campaigners target users with the important features.
Try the Squint Test on the McCain site: “Squint your eyes while looking at each candidate’s home page to see what jumps out. Watch, he says, as the large headlines and scarlet accents on the Obama site pop, while the McCain site’s contents become a blur. There is no one accent color directing the eye: at least six different shades of blue share a screen peppered with multiple shades of yellow, red, and green.”
Overall, a good campaign website needs consistency which keeps readers on the site for longer time periods, while inconsistencies have proved to drive users away.
Branding
Like marketing, the brand is also important and inclusions of the brand throughout the website is encouraged to get users familiar with the “product” (campaign).
Involvement
A good campaign site makes it easy for users to get involved in the campaign, be it financially or to volunteer, this is achieved by the campaign tools. Such tools which are also included in MyCamp Campaign Tools functionality include, writing blog posts, attending events, making phone calls, knocking on doors, running personal donation campaigns etc… It’s pretty obvious by now that linking up to all the active social network sites, helps the campaign. So expect all campaigns, nowadays, to have their own Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube accounts.
This is the first time I have heard about the squinting technique. But nevertheless it is quite interesting.