Nice and calm but missing sub navigation - 50Plus
This is the first usability review on websites of political parties. More will follow.
50Plus positions itself as a website for people aged over 50, so if they’re any good on marketing they will focus on more than only their website. However, with awareness of technology increasing, I would think the website is still a very important aspect.
The party’s website can be found on http://www.50pluspartij.nl/. I’d say that’s a nice and descriptive name for the url, since 50plus.nl was already taken. First thing I see when I open the site is a request for permission to store cookies, so the website is compliant with new regulations too.
The design is quite nice, nothing fancy but with a good overview. The main color is purple, and I think that might give the site a slightly feminine feel, but it’s not disturbing.
One of the main pages is the one about pensions. Unfortunately, the text lay out is failing. There is way too much space between paragraphs and headers. Not really a problem, but slightly annoying.
Works fine, but could have been easier
All menu links are working, so that’s a plus on navigation. However, I’m not sure if the order of the menu items makes much sense. I agree on starting with news, but I would put Contact in the end, as most websites do.
As for the items I was looking for: the program is very easy to find and available both in text on the website and in PDF. I missed a table of contents, which would make browsing the program to relevant parts easier. Now, I have to scan the whole program, even if I only care about their view on just one subject. Actually, this goes for more parts of the website: too long texts, where shorter pages and sub navigation would be helpful.
There is no list of candidates (well, not one I could find, anyway) anywhere on the website.
Cross-browser functioning and conclusion
The website works well in Chrome, FF and IE. The website works all right on mobile, too. Nothing fancy and no mobile site, but everything stays in place. The site is just re-sized accordingly. Since the target audience is 50+ I’d expect a bigger letter type, on all browsers but especially on mobile. In the end, I’d also like to observe that ironically it is this party that wants to make Netherlands the #1 country in terms of internet use.
My final verdict:
- General design: 7/10
- Content: 5/10
- Navigation: 6/10
- Cross-browser functioning: 8/10
- Average: 6,5/10
