Website Design: Obama vs McCain

The 2008 Presidential Election is really starting to heat up because of one major new development: John McCain revamped his website! Okay, so that's not nearly as exciting as it sounds... and you may have been thinking I was talking about Hillary (finally) dropping out. While as entertaining as that was, the re-vamp of McCain's website is something that sent the graphic design blogosphere into a frenzy. The Vanity Fair blog first noticed the change at the end of last month while they were in the middle of comparing the websites of Obama, Clinton and McCain. Now, with the race entering the general election, these new media powerhouses have to stand up to plenty of scrutiny.

McCain's website went from a serious black and gold to candy-coated blue and red while simultaneously upping his Web 2.0 capabilities. The old website fit John McCain more; it was a grizzly, dark site with black and white photos of McCain that made him look like a general. But for all its fitting tone, it wasn't very friendly, especially in this day and age of feel-good politics brimming with "hope" and "change" (these aren't necessarily good things). His new site is crammed with all the whiz-bang gizmos and widgets that a modern candidate site needs, and some strange social networking thing called "McCainSpace." His new page is also a pretty blatant rip-off of his opponent's website, with bright blue graphics and lots of "sun rays." Yeah, it's a little creepy.

I have no qualm admitting that I was impressed with Barack Obama's website from the first time I saw it. Democrats have had the majority of artists and designers on their side since the 60s, but this was the first time that I actually felt like they were put to work. The site featured some great images and a unified glowing-blue design scheme. It actually utilizes white space and isn't afraid to make people scroll down. Sure it features those doofy taglines at the bottom, like how it's "powered by hope" (and not some web server client), but I'm willing to overlook that for more of those cool eagle illustrations that suggest he's more than a wimpy liberal elitist. Then there's the massive social networking linklist at the very bottom of the page, Obama Everywhere. If it sounds Big Brothery, that's because it is and he will be, but for now it's just an impressive use of New Media that was previously only really embraced by Ron Paul.

Barack's website is actually perfect for him: it's a slick-looking veneer covering up a vapid statesmen with dangerous ideas. His site is great to look at, but the more you read and experience "the Obama," the more you realize that he's not that great. Equally, McCain's site suits him: it's trying to appeal to a young audience, but can't discard its pragmatic, work-horse nature. It features lengthy policy explanations and transcripts of all of his major speeches. Again, the site is an impressive resource for an accomplished politician; but who knows how many people will spend the time to go through it all?