Clever call to action, but lacking top menus - Libertarian Party
Some parties want more taxes, some want better regulations for entrepreneurs or more care for people with heath issues. The libertarian party wants nothing of that kind. They want one thing and one thing only: freedom, as long as it doesn’t interfere with freedom of others. I suppose that gives me the freedom to discuss their website!
Judging by most of the sites I have visited, blue is the new black. The libertarians chose grey and blue for the color scheme of http://http://www.libertarischepartij.nl/. It’s not exciting, but the colors work well contributing to a calm website experience. What I really like about the homepage is the extensive use of photos. In contrast to what I’ve seen on other pages, photos on this page are actually used to support the texts, not simply “to add photos”. The homepage consists of a news feed (my frustration on those is described in my blog about LibDem’s website, yet this one mostly consists of photographs with small captions). There is also a banner that tells visitors to join the campaign and when clicked leads to… the page of the campaign. Well done, nice call to action integrated with a different page on the site.
Clever call to action
Speaking of calls to action, there’s a very clever one, that looks like a poll. The poll starts out with the question: “Will you help us?” and then proceeds with “That’s great!” listing your options. This is actually a clever psychologic trick: visitors who encounter these options are less likely to realize they have the option of not helping (since that option is not listed) and it’s more likely they will actually choose one of the options to help out. Nice marketing trick!
Other than that, the right column of the page lists a whole bunch of unneeded information. However, while GroenLinks left me with information overload, on this website I can simply ignore the unneeded information because the stuff I’m looking for is on top.
Double navigation: just combine the two menus!
The main menu bar is right below the banner and the supporting menu bar is right above the banner. I can’t justify this distinction based on the menu items. Surprisingly, one of the menu items is actually in both bars. Now what would be the use of that? Also, the top bar, which I consider to be supporting because of its size and color, actually contains important items: “Campaign 2012”, “Volunteers wanted!” and “Our views”. The main bar might combine some items through creating sub items, in order to make it all fit well. An example: “Party drinks” and “Meetings” could be combined. And “Campaign material” could become a sub menu item of “Campaign 2012”.
Basic list of candidates but great navigation in program!
The list of candidates for the upcoming elections is easy to find, yet very basic. It’s merely what it says: a list. I would like to know more about the people behind the party, but no background information is provided. As for the elections program… I found it, but not where I expected to find it. It was a subitem of “Party”, though I expect the “Party” to be more about the creation of the party and the people. On the plus side: I really, really like the navigation within the program. And the program text is also available as one piece of text (but not in PDF).
Cross-browser functioning and conclusion
The website performs well in different browsers and does alright in mobile, though I would prefer a mobile website here.
For a party without any seats in the Second Chamber, I think the party did a great job. Integrating the two menus and providing more information on their candidates would make the site even better.
My final verdict:
- General design: 7/10
- Content: 7,5/10 (provide more background on the candidates)
- Navigation: 6/10 (just combine the two menus and choose menu items wisely!)
- Cross-browser functioning: 8/10
- Average: 7,1/10
