A snap election in the UK has launched the country into campaigning mode and we are being constantly bombarded with information from political parties. Whilst we may still get the old-fashioned electioneering leaflets thrust through our letterboxes, most of us now get our political information on the web.
If the election is going to be won or lost online, website design becomes hugely important. The stakes could not be higher, so who are the winners and the losers in the web presence competition?
The Labour web presence
According to the BBC, the week of manifesto launches saw the gap between Labour and the Conservatives narrowing. It seems that the Labour advance has strengthened, but how is the party doing when it comes to online design?
Labour has certainly embraced the ‘mobile-first’ website technology, recognising that many people access the web on smartphones. It has done away with its old splash screen, which was a little aggravating.
On a PC, the content looks supersize and is simply a giant version of the mobile content; obviously, modern methods of creating responsive websites that change according to the device on which they are viewed have not been utilised.
There are technical issues viewing tweets if you are using Firefox, and there is no warning that you are about to leave the main site when you click on a link to a microsite. Small glitches such as these are easy to resolve by consulting an expert in Tunbridge Wells web design, such as http://www.targetink.co.uk/.
The Conservative web presence
The Conservative Party has a home page with the same box-based layout it had back in 2010, with the focus very much on fundraising and volunteering.
The party is embracing social media, with some pages linking directly to Facebook, and it has a clever way of collecting your email address. You must enter this to find out what the Conservatives are up to in your area; however, this may be off-putting for some people.
The claims are fairly generic and may not be specific enough to attract subscribers. We all want the party to be ‘creating more jobs’ and ‘delivering the best schools’; however, we may not be willing to hand over our email address to find out more about it.
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