Where are your candidates?! - Party for the Animals
This week was kind of hectic so it’s only today that I’m doing another review. Today I’m doing the review for the party I’m most likely to vote for myself upcoming elections: Partij voor de Dieren (short: PvdD, translation: Party for the Animals). This party used to focus on solely the issue of animal welfare, but these days they have quite nuanced views on other topics as well.
So… their website can be found on http://www.partijvoordedieren.nl. The primary color is blue. Seriously, I’ll need to do some reading on color psychology, I don’t think blue is the color to make people vote for your party. Then again, it might depend on the shade. With PvdD the shade is a light blue, a color I personally would associate with the sea. It’s bright and it’s cheerful, but I don’t think it matches well with the dark green of the party’s logo.
More information overload and minor problems
With so many reviews already done, I find it hard to keep focusing on unique aspects of a website. Once again, the website is not very spectacular in lay out and once again, there’s information overload on the homepage (Headlines, news feeds x2, action buttons x 7, logos of what I think are sponsors or maybe related organizations, a campaign banner, that kind of stuff), I think I’ve already said all I had to say about that in earlier reviews.
The main menu bar is divided based on the party division (First and Second chambers, Europese government, municipalities and such). There is also a separate item for the party, with the elections program as one of the sub items. I’m not sure where to find the candidates, but my first guess would be “Second Chamber”. When I discover they are not there, I try the search option. Whoops, there goes my lay out! Now that was awkward, the whole lay out disappears and I need to either choose a result or press “Back” in my browser. I still haven’t found any candidates, so “Back” it is.
The party’s program is actually available in four versions: an online version, a pdf, a spoken version and a basic version in understandable language (this one is in pdf). There is no way to navigate within the program. Also, unfortunately, in the basic version (maybe also in the others, I didn’t check) they refer negatively to other parties. It’s argueable whether that’s good marketing. Some may fall for it, I personally think it’s very weak and a sign that the party’s strong points are apparently not enough to convince the voters.
Cross-browser functioning and conclusion
The website works well in different browsers, though the online version of the campaign was not exactly readable on mobile.
In general for websites like these I would say that they fit well for a party’s website, but not specifically for upcoming elections. There’s plenty of information on the ideals of the party, news items and backgrounds. However, as a voter I’m not triggered to vote for this party. In fact, after checking out this website I start doubting even more whether I shouldn’t just vote “blanc”. That couldn’t have been the website’s purpose :)
My final verdict:
- General design: 7/10
- Content: 5/10 (couldn’t find the candidates anywhere)
- Navigation: 7/10 (what happened with the lay-out after search?)
- Cross-browser functioning: 6,5/10
- Average: 6,4/10
