Judging the Obama & Clinton websites

I have recently been asked to take a look at two websites for their style, content and other criteria. These two sites are for two people who could one day change the world, so it hasn’t been a small task.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are currently battling it out in the real world, so how do their websites check out? I think we can learn a lot about web design from these two sites.

Let’s take a look at them both:

If you ever wanted two sites for the same thing, that looked totally different, this these are your examples. First impressions, no matter what people say, are vital – and Obama’s site is simply beautiful. A good use of a single colour, with a few Web 2.0 features thrown in. There are too many colours, images and links on Clinton’s. You just don’t know where to start.

Here we see ‘traditional’ fight it out with ‘modern’ and in the world that we’re currently in, I feel that ‘modern’ and ‘change’ will win. The agency who created this site have clearly thought about how they would like to position the candidate. A real example of brand management on the web.

Just out of interest, after judging the site, these were my comments:

“It is clear that the Obama website has embraced all that is new about the web. An indication of what he stands for and what he’s aiming to achieve. It is clear, concise and beautifully designed. Although not a poor site in many ways, the first impression of Clinton’s is of desperation. It is loaded with colours and content that can confuse the user.”