It’s only March and we’ve already seen a couple of high profile website redesigns. Most notably — on the day of Barack Obamas’ inaguaration, the new whitehouse.gov website was premiered. The difference was so bold that it captured big time attention from big media. In some instances it was used to signify the difference between Obama’s new hotness versus Bush’s old and busted. Since then, ESPN rolled out of their beta and pitchfork.com (indie music website) premiered their new website this weekend.
It’s All About Change
A comment that some made was that Bush’s whitehouse.org was absolutely perfect. It was perfect because it kept people disinterested in what he was doing! I can see the creative brief now: lull and bore the dissenters into a coma. It uses a traditional three column layout with nav on left, content in center and some call-outs on the sidebar. It’s competant but I think most people would agree it is not inspiring — which it should be as we found out this past election.
Obama on the other hand, is about change and his web team was not afraid to defy convention of what we think of as a government website. He uses many common website layout features such as:
- “Hero” graphic — is the single most important visual element on page. Typically communicates the single most important message.
- Blog — frequently updated content in a very accessible format.
- Newsletter — keepin’ the old citizens informed.
- Usability — trafficking people to where they want to go.
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