Jay Nixon released a sneak peek of his website on June 28th - Governor Matt Blunt responds with his own website revamp! Parteee! So Jay Nixon launches his live!
Let me catch my breath. The excitement of these two web titans has me a little overcome.
Let's see how much our two candidates for Missouri governor have learned.
Step 1: Contact Forms
Nixon: Big Button right up front. A+ for Usability. Click on Button and it takes you to a second form you have to fill out with name, address and phone number so you can send me campaign stuff and call me for the next 18 months. Man, I hate it when campaigns do this. What if I just want your e-mail, and don't want your campaign literature.
Blunt: E-mail sign up - prominent - so A+ for Usability, but the colors are really distracting - a little too dark for my tastes.
Navigation: What are these guys, twins? A real lack of creativity in top navigation. Donate, Multimedia ((just picture galleries and a video or two), Issues, and News and Take Action. These websites would be great, if they were from 2000.
Miscellaneous: Attorney General Nixon? You might want to have a word with your internet marketing gurus, Blackrock Associates. They, and their webdesigner, Articulated Man, have no business showcasing their links on your website. It's really, really unprofessional to add a designed by: link in a political page. Here, take a look:
I mean, is the purpose to get the man elected, or is it to get Blackrock more business?.
Why is this a bad thing? Well first, there's the question of why Jay Nixon doesn't feel there are any Missouri based web designers that could make his new site. Why outsource to a hotshot political firm, from (cue music). DUNH, DUNH, DUNHHHHH....Berkeley, California.
Hey, if you want to hang out with the people who like Barbara Boxer and Pat Leahy, be my guest, but don't advertise it on your site.
As for Blunt, I pretty much just have one thing to say, and it's a big Larry David, ehhhhh. Very middling website. Come on Blunt - you must have someone on your staff who can spice it up a little. Do you really want to have your website be boring? YOUR WEBSITE IS BUILT IN TABLES! But at least it looks like it was made in Missouri. It's nice that you have confidence in the state you live in, unlike some people.
Both candidates lack any sense of social media or Web 2.0, although Nixon does have the rounded corners look to his Donate buttons. Other than rounded corners, these two websites get two big thumbs way down.
INCE2008
Has everyone forgot that there is a primary election??
Do you know that Blunt will be facing Republican Challenger C. Anthony Ince in August 2008?
www.ince2008.com
Posted by: C. Anthony Ince | 11/08/2007 at 06:09 PM