studionashvegas | design and social media

The Great

It’s one day before the most historic election anyone can remember, and the websites are getting traffic hits in the millions as the clock winds down.  The first post focused on the main candidates, but there are other policy groups, politicians, and lobby groups that have fantastic designs.

Better Roads Now

I love this site.  It’s super colorful and has a great use of stock photography, great gradients, and a clear call to action (the big button on the right side).  It’s also super easy to read and get updates from.

perspctv

I *love* this site.  It’s been my window onto the world of politics online this past election season.  There is so much information that has been elegantly crammed into a small place, but the site still looks open and very free form.  AND, the feeds autoupdate every few seconds, which makes for a great “stay on the site and watch” window on a browser.

Of course, with the great, also comes the not-so-great:

David All Group

Normally, I’m a big fan of the rounded corners, but The David All Group website is just plain horribly done.  The spacing is off between the header and navigation (lots of space – it should be a lot less), the header is a different size from the main content (looks like the header was recycled from an old design), the photo in the middle is HORRIBLY photoshopped, and the white on blue text (and the blue on light blue text next to it) clashes horribly.  Overall, it’s a super-poor execution of a site. These guys are a design firm – I expect better.

The Underlying Problem

I spent about 20 minutes looking at politicians sites to see examples of just plain bad design, but with the exception of a few firms, most are resorting to the table-based, no-social-media influenced, boring site design.  That’s a problem.  Politicians, at their core, are supposed to represent the people, and if they aren’t evolving (via technology, thought, or otherwise) with those people, then how can we expect them to lead us? 

I think that this election will be a turning point in political design.  We’re going to see sites in the next election that (hopefully) utilize the design trends that are concurrent with modern business or even the personal blogger’s site.  The bloggers are running the show because (as we’ve seen) no one can trust the media.  Polls lie, and yes, even people lie.  Good design, however, is honest, timeless, and will never let you down, no matter what the people writing the content do.

So, before the election tomorrow, are there any good (or bad) websites that you know of that are political / policy based?  Leave them in the comments!

I love this commercial.  I got chills watching it.  It doesn’t matter if you’re voting for Obama or McCain or anyone else – just go vote.

I’ve been following the elections with great care this year.  It’s probably one of the most contested, heated, angry, fun-to-watch-SNL again elections that history has seen.  At any rate, it’s good to see that both parties have embraced the Internet for campaigning, and have stepped into the 21st century as far as their websites go.

First, Obama:

I have to say that whoever designed this page has a flair for design and detail.  The site and splash page (even though I *hate* splash pages) are well done, and the blue shades on the site are all matched well.  It’s a very easy to read site, and makes for an easy transition from viewer to “doer” (via the action center being so visible).

And McCain:

McCain’s site is also well designed – lots of gradients and bright graphics – but requires MUCH less scrolling.  While not so much now a big deal as it used to be, people prefer to scroll as little as possible, and it condenses the data down to a manageable size (while not overloading you).

So, while the election is still in full swing, the sites are getting bombarded with traffic hit after hit. What do you think? Does one candidate have a better site, or do they both do their job well (the sites, not the candidates)?  Are there any other local candidates that have fantastic sites?  Leave your answers in the comments below!