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I took some time tonight to dig into the issues from both major candidate’s* Web sites: BarackObama.com and JohnMcCain.com, hoping to find some clarity and decisive policy-making beyond the petty “he lied, no he lied about us lying” bullshit prevalent in campaign ads.
I found many answers I was looking for, some that steered me back and forth to either candidate (these aren’t idiots; they employ very smart campaign staff that help in crafting an exacting message - except for some of the gaffs and miscommunications between campaign staff, reality, and what drops from certain candidates mouths).
Beyond the answers, however, I noticed something that - while it doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with how a person should ultimately vote - really shows the attention to detail that one candidates camp shows over the other.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Web sites of Barack Obama and John McCain: My :30 second review.
1. Barack Obama’s “Splash Page” (or “donate page”):
First thing I noticed, the Barack Obama Web site (overall) has a largely Web 2.0 feel to it (lots of whitespace, and gradients galore). As a 30-something voter that has used the Web for many years, I’m drawn to layouts like this. For a specific demographic, score one for Obama. This layout is clean, without bells and whistles, and for some reason, reminds me of waking up on a farm. Or taking a lot of easy, deep breaths.
Second, the size of the splash screen (the required browser size in order to eliminate any scrollbars) was quite small - different from the main site by some amount. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad, but I’m glad to see that I’m not required to maximize the browser on my laptop in order to get the “meat” of the Web site. For a screen real-estate hog (me), score one for Obama.
2. John McCain’s “Splash Page” (or “disaster on web 1.0’s wheels”):
McCain’s Splash page, before it got resized.
McCain’s splash page - in all it’s enormity.
I gotta say, when I loaded the John McCain splash page without resizing the Barack Obama window (I wanted to test differences in layout) I wasn’t prepared for the massive amount of screen real-estate I’d have to adjust for to eliminate the scrollbars. I mean, c’mon McCain staff - I had to hide the dock on my MacBook Pro just to get the vertical scrollbars to go away - and for what? So I could load the really poorly designed bevelled buttons? Did someone just get gifted a copy of Photoshop 6 and went all ape over the preset “styles” flyout?
Ok, that off my chest, let’s get back to raw comparison of the splash screen. Let’s see, enormous size? Check. Really badly designed buttons? Check. Embedded movies right off the front that scared the crap out of me at 1:53 AM? Check! I haven’t broken out my pica-ruler yet (I keep one by my desk at work), but I could swear the type on McCain’s splash page couldn’t get any tighter without starting sparks.
Finally, to get off the bashing of the McCain splash page, while I personally don’t agree with autoplaying video on a Web site (and certainly not without some kind of warning - a little pee came out, people!), having videon on the splash does help his message (in my opinion - wait, isn’t this ALL in my opinion?). The “ads” that played were more along the lines of “get to know John,” and less about “there’s a terrorist in your midst - don’t elect Dr. Zaius!” I guess score one for a cleaner, more “about me” campaign video.
3. Let’s talk code:
Dreamweaver?? Are you frigging kidding me?!
First off, I’m going to talk about the McCain splash page. I secretly look at the code used to build Web pages that I browse (yeah, nearly all of them - I’m SUCH a nerd!). When I looked at the code behind the John McCain splash page I nearly choked on my midnight snack (Justine made brownies!). Dreamweaver? Seriously? Dreamweaver? I’m all for reform on spending, but c’mon John, couldn’t your staff paid a little more for a better “grow your own” designer? You’re using out-of-the-box MM_ functions for Christ’s sake! Maybe it’s the same designer that got Photoshop 6 finally. I’m so annoyed, I’m leaving it at that.
Second, off to Obama’s code (still talking about the splash pages here, folks. Follow along). What a breathe of fresh air. In the <head> area of the code (the stuff that includes searchable keywords, titles of pages, etc), the Obama staff took it upon themselves to include keywords of common misspellings of Barack Obama’s name - I noticed that throughout Obama’s political career, he’s had to overcome the misspelling and mispronunciation issue time and again (watched a PBS special on the two presidential nominees tonight). So, there’s a point for Obama’s team.
Still on Obama’s code, I noticed that they use some pretty nifty CSS (the code that styles colors, page layout, stuff like that) tricks, like input[type="text"]. Thats some fancy code in this developers mind. Also, Obama’s team is using JQuery and auto-loading Firebug! Take that, Dreamweaver!
4. Finally, the main Web sites.
Right now, it’s 2:20 AM and I’m really not in the mood to discuss the deeper parts of the Web sites. I know, I know, you’re all disappointed, but come on! I totally gave you a lot to read with 1-3 up there. Get off my back. Both Web sites do a good job in their pure size, while I still have to give the clarity and less AOL-looking layout award to the Obama team. The McCain Web site is just a color explosion that makes my tummy hurt.
I’ll do a deeper review at some point (yeah, right).
One last thing (before the asterisk that you all forgot about that appears below): None of the crap I wrote tonight will sway my vote towards or away from a candidate. While I do believe one candidate knows modern computing better than the other, I absolutely certain that neither fired up TextMate, BBEdit, Dreamweaver, or god-forbid FrontPage on their own to craft these Web sites. It takes a village of in-house designers, developers, and writers to put together these beasts (that, or it’s all outsourced).
* Ahh, you forgot about the footnote, eh? Well, look back in the first few lines. There, I mention the two major candidates, careful not to say “these two dudes are your choice, that’s it. A or B.” While I do believe these two are the most likely candidates, I won’t exclude anyone else that may be on the ballot and risk pissing off say, eight nor nine people that will still vote for Nader.
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