Presidential politics has always dragged way behind business when it comes to understanding the Web. (As recently as 2004, Dick Cheney couldn’t even get his domain names straight.) But 2008 might be the first election year in which the big players in politics have shown they’ve finally caught up. Not that they didn’t have some help, of course: Barack Obama’s campaign, for instance, hired Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes to lead its Web initiative.
Curious as to what Web site design tricks the top two presidential campaigns pulled off the best, we asked CBS Interactive Art Director Marc Mendell to click through the Barack Obama and John McCain campaign sites and analyze their effectiveness — from a business point of view, not a political one.
“An effective Web site design conveys brand and presents information with a clear hierarchy,” says Mendell, who has led several award-winning site redesigns, including BNET’s. “A functional site creates intuitive access to all the content.” Here’s Mendell’s take on Obama v. McCain online.
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zoetermeer39
I just wonder how would Obama/Democrate connect to the world now that the election is over. Would the Digital Divide gap (since his mode of connection is almost all online or using new medias) be narrower? OR forgotten?
I understand that most are amaze at his ways of reaching the voters. BUT that would mean a selective section of the voters ... those that are young, educated, middle class, can-afford etc.
glash
This is an extremely objective view of one website vs. another. It doesn't matter the type of business. The facts are the facts, and Marc got them Right On!
AND, he only touched on a few items. There are many more he could have added.
How do I know? I am a Certified Internet Marketing Consultant with an organization that helps thousands of businesses optimize their websites every year.
Good job, Marc.
paulBNET
Great review of both websites and this provides some very practical "how to" and best-of-breed design and usability parameters that any online property should pay attention to.
Of note also - the differences continued Wednesday morning. The Obama site had a "thank you" page up and was updated, the McCain site was out of date with negative Obama messages and "go vote" buttons - not in line with the message and very nice concession speach McCain gave the night before. I just posted more detail here: http://www.sentientservices.com/blog/2008/11/election-is-over-lesson-in-usability.html
paulBNET
Great review of both websites and this provides some very practical "how to" and best-of-breed design and usability parameters that any online property should pay attention to.
Of note also - the differences continued Wednesday morning. The Obama site had a "thank you" page up and was updated, the McCain site was out of date with negative Obama messages and "go vote" buttons - not in line with the message and very nice concession speach McCain gave the night before. I just posted more detail here: http://www.sentientservices.com/blog/2008/11/election-is-over-lesson-in-usability.html
paulBNET
The link seems to keep breaking, so you can just go here www.sentientservices.com/blog and find the article.
ffraser33
I had been saying since Gore ran in 2000 that any political candidate should use the internet and cell phones to tap into markets. Finally Obama came through and it was indeed a huge success. I looked at McCain's website and it was embarrassing in comparison. (much like the rest of his campaign). A well structured, informational and easy to navigate website has been the wave of the future for the last 8 years. Nice to see this blog has caught up on Obama's coat tails. 
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