Drawar

The first impression of a website is very important. Most websites get it wrong simply because they are catering to the people that are already familiar with the site. What about the people looking to get information? What about the people who are there for their second visit? Creating the perfect homepage can be a difficult task and a job that is never finished. However, something has to represent the index of a site so I thought it would be interesting to see the first impressions of the websites for Republican candidates running for President.

There are over 10+ candidates, but I only looked at the ones that I saw as being the frontrunners. By no means is this a political post or meant to start a discussion on politics. This is simply a case study of my own curiosity to see how things are done by people looking to make a change in the world.

As a first time visitor to these websites, I’m hoping that upon my visit they give me a tagline that represents what they stand for. I want to know I can access information about them quickly and the design of their website should leave a good impression on me. Politics shouldn’t be based just on the first five seconds of anything, but it should be fun to see how each of these sites do. Barack Obama has set the bar high with regards to quality design over the years. Let’s see if his competition can follow suit.

Michele Bachmann

A splash page. I already want to leave the site. Oh, she is selling a book. Is she an author or a candidate? Wonder if she is using the Amazon affiliate program to make a couple of bucks on the side. Huge donate button. I can also get email updates, but there isn’t a place to put in my email address. I guess I have to click the button.

She wants to create more jobs.

Newt Gingrich

Another splash page. A picture of this guy. A picture of his back I should say. Hope if I ever get the chance to meet him I get to see his back first. He wants me to sign up for his newsletter. All the text is an image.

Help shape the 21st Century contract with America.

Curious statement.

Rick Perry

Oh, look. Another splash page. He has nice hair. He wants me to sign up for his newsletter as well. Perry also wants to get America working again.

Out of curiosity I wonder why he doesn’t own RickPerry.com…oh, nevermind.

Mitt Romney

Okay, I’m starting to get the impression that the most important thing when running for President is to get people to sign up for your newsletter. Seems like a decent guy who doesn’t mind having his picture taken with a girl in a bird hat. Should I click on these social media buttons? The numbers look too low so I wouldn’t want to associate myself with that. Maybe if it was more popular.

Rick Santorum

Another spl…wait a minute. This guy doesn’t have a splash page. He has an actual website I can go to! Not a fan of the design, but the fact that there is an actual website is a big plus. No strong tagline to let me know what he stands for. Probably the most aesthetically unpleasing experience so far, but at least I’m not given a signup form immediately.

Ron Paul

A very nice website. After seeing the rest I’m just going to leave it at that.

Final Thoughts

When Barack Obama (who ironically has a splash page up to win a dinner with him) hit the scene four years ago with a strong emphasis on great design, I really thought it would change how politicians handled their campaigns. It is great to have a strong message, but without great design it can be hard to get that message across to people that like to think.

While all of the websites with splash pages offered ways to get to the real website without signing up for anything, they still lacked great design. They were terrible, but it was obvious that design doesn’t play a huge role in their campaigns. None of them employed responsive layouts so viewing them on your phone and sharing them with your friends won’t leave a great impression.

Ron Paul seems to be the clear winner on the design front, but I wish all of them pushed the envelope of design. Maybe next election cycle the importance of great design will finally kick in for people.