[tweetmeme] This guest post was written by Brian Franklin and Eva Vesper at Web Hosting Search. He occasionally writes for design blogs but also has his own hosting blog, where he writes about hosting, designing, and random potpourri. Web Hosting Search is a respected guide on web hosting providers and helps visitors chose the best hosting for their needs.
As the presidential election goes into its final lap, we decided to search for some of the best designed sites on politics. What surprised us was that many sites had ‘shouting messages:’ large fonts, flashy images, and crazy Adsense. Were they no good sites out there that: 1) still get the point across; 2) do it in an aesthetically pleasing manner? Thankfully we were able to find some. We chose these sites not because of the messages (there are sites from all sides of the political spectrum) but rather how successful the designer was at creating a visually stimulating site without going overboard. Here are twelve sites and why we voted for them.
But first, BarackObama.com Vs. JohnMcCain.com
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Before we get into our listing one question had to be answered: Which presidential candidate currently has the best designed website? And since web design transcends all political colors and differences it is with a objective mind we can clearly state that senator Barack Obama’s website is well designed compared to John McCain’s website. Why? Obama takes a warm clean feel to the website; images fade in and out, social media elements are well placed throughout the site, and the site dedicates a large portion to chapters. McCain’s site sadly, lacked both in good coding and design. There were no social media elements to take advantage of the power of the net and the visual design was bland. Brooke Marshall wrote an in-depth article about this. Check it out here.
And so with one day to go until America’s next president is elected, it is time to go political. Listed below are twelve well designed websites in the political niche. The time has come to address perhaps one of the most important topics of society today: web design!
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1. Politico.com
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A clean cut magazine. The layout has clear blue headers to form the political headlines of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Perhaps in another niche this web design would come off as plain and simple. At Politico.com however the content can reach the reader instantly through its headers, creating a professional and intriguing look.
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2. DeclareYourself.com
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A modern looking website that through a fresh and young web design takes on the issue of the relatively low voting rate amongst Americans. Declare Yourself has unlike other websites, understood the importance of presentation.
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3. JohnMcCainRecord.com
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McCain’s silhouette profile in the background and brightly colored headers in large letters makes this site stand out. The web design grabs you like a frontpage headline in a tabloid magazine.
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4. FightTheSmears.com
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Like most political websites, the color blue creates a patriotic and soothing mood. With good structure, easy navigation, and professional graphic elements, there was no doubt this site would make this list.
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5. NRSC.org
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Looking at the web design, The National Republican Senatorial Committee has a fabulous website. The header and navigation menu is separated from the body and that gives a sense of structure. The four featured boxes on the front page adds a clear structure and user-friendly presentation of the content. The video streamer in the main box gives the site a dynamic feeling. And irritating but still well done is the thick-box on the homepage. I’m not a fan of them since so many sites misuse them but this one grabs my attention and there is an immediate call to action.
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6. Democrats.org/blog
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The navigation menu is bold, and the blog header is a playful grassy image. With the three colors of the American flag, this web site shows of thought through web design.
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7. NoHussein.org
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Perhaps the only fully flash designed website, No Hussein has a
simple color scheme (black, orange, and grey), uses clever photos of Obama’s portrait and profile images, and has bold text to get the point across.
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8. RockTheVote.com
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A thoroughly designed website with impressive banners, icons and overall feel. RockYourVote gives the ‘rock’ feeling: utilizing the title name with also the style (something we haven’t seen in most political sites).
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9. NoVoteLeftBehind.net
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Creativity and the ambition stands out at No Vote Left Behind. They designed the website in a style that mixes a traditional red, white, and blue color scheme, unique graphics in logo and links with a simplicity of the content.
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10. GOP.org
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The Republican National Committee website is content-wise, a bit clustered. However, design wise it shows great depth with discrete yet nice header elements and a structure that puts focus on the intriguing slide show images on the front page.
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11. Equality California
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If you are going to design a website for an explosive issue, such as gay marriage, be smart and design the site to be friendly. EQ CA does just that. Upon first glance, it looks like a Scandinavian design furniture site. Nice sidebar with small logos, clear headings, and warm color choices. Our only problem: some terrible .ASP coding that makes it hard to click on the EQCA icon and actually get to the homepage.
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12. Iprotectmarriage.com
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And on the other side of the same issue, I Protect Marriage has a bold layout. Black background with pink trim, smart icons (the 8 made of two wedding bands), and even funky font in the quiz. The site sends a clear message without using harsh language that many other political sites use. The layout invites the reader to peruse the website without confusion, a great element to keep the reader on board.
If you get hired as a web designer for a political site, remember three things:
1) Design the site to welcome both sides (or all sides) of the issue
2) Use non threatening colors and writing to attract visitors (if your client disagrees, maybe explain that flaming messages won’t attract any visitors… except the nuttiest)
3) And know the type of visitors expected to come to the site. If you are designing a site for a working class city councilman, make the site simple in structure and visual, maybe go patriotic.
And lastly…get your vote out Tuesday.
Check out some really cool web design tutorials at the new site, The Tutorialist.
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