The DeStefano for CT site got an overhaul this weekend. There's a lot more content on the homepage--once you get past this front page, in which the mayor and a brigade of adorable children beg you to sign up for the DeStefano email list. The Malloy campaign had one of these for a while (sans children), but wisely discontinued it. I find it annoying, and a barrier to access.
The homepage itself looks much more professional than it did before, and there's a lot more information. The navigation is along the top, and the page itself is divided into three columns. This is pretty standard design, but it's an improvement over what was there before. They actually seem to have made the site look and feel more like Malloy's site, which is not a bad thing. They take a couple of the things that bother me about Malloy's site and improved on them. I like the three columns, and I like the color scheme.
The site isn't quite fully functional yet, since the blog and the list of endorsements aren't up. I expect they will be this week, if not later today.
The redesign seems to be part of the DeStefano campaign's efforts to reinvent itself as a competent, professional organization capable of defeating Jodi Rell. Other changes have included a new campaign manager and the release of major legislative initiatives. We'll see if it helps him regain some momentum before the convention.
2 comments:
For the record, it's the presence of the page itself, not the children, that annoys me! Actually, the use of children as sort of a campaign prop is so common that I barely noticed it.
I don't particularly like the CT Dems portal, either. It's just one more barrier to get through.
The idea of a front page that has little content and encourages people to sign up is usually referred to as a 'splash page'. They are generally frowned upon in webpage developement. They decrease the ranking of the website in search engine optimization and have a tendency to drive people away.
Considering that something like 40% of people visiting a website only look at the first page, and over three quarters of the people visiting a website look at three or less pages, a splash page significantly decreases readership.
Post a Comment