I owe a lot to the website craigslist.  It helped me find my current townhouse and housemates; it helped me find my current job; and it helped me find a great (and cheap!) dining room set.

The site began in 1995, with a very simple design.  Since that time, the design has not changed all that much.  "Keep it simple, stupid" is definitely the unspoken motto of the now-thriving entity.  There are very few graphics on the site, and the entire interface is very similar to newspaper classified ads.  Personally, I have always been a big fan of this design; I get very sick of watching flash intros to every other website on the market when I am foaming at the mouth to get to the actual content.

With an astounding 9 billion page views per month, yet only 25 employees, the website is well on its way to being the most used site on the web.  New cities and areas are added fairly frequently, with 450 being represented at the time of this post.  You can learn more about the wonder that is craigslist by visiting the "Fact Sheet" on their website.

Recently, and quietly, craigslist expanded its empire by introducing the first of several to come foreign language versions of the site.  Craigslist has never been one to make loud announcements about its new accomplishments and updates (just another reason to love it), and these new languages were implemented back in November of 2007.  Craigslist is now available in French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.  The individual areas of the site will continue to be community moderated.

The lack of multi-language support was the only thing stopping craigslist from being a bigger hit overseas, but with this welcomed foreign facelift, the site is poised to spread its influence even further.

Since Todd and Tom have recently critiqued Barack Obama's presidential website — apparently in its Blue Period — I was also thinking about the design of 2008 presidential candidate sites.

As someone with a search engine optimization (SEO) background, I probably focus a little bit more on title tags and anchor link text when evaluating a site than a someone who looks at the pretty pictures (or the lack thereof).

Well, I'm not alone.  Li Evans of the Search Marketing Gurus blog does as well, and has done some interesting campaign site evaluations from an SEO's perspective.  You can find them in the Political Internet Marketing category of the blog.

In these posts she discusses various SEO topics like page titles, keyword usage, and the actual content found on a site.  Further, she does look at a campaign's search marketing efforts, if any, and use of social media.  Her posts are worth a read.

So far, here are the candidate (or former ones) sites that she's reviewed:

• Joe Biden
• Chris Dodd
• Duncan Hunter
• Dennis Kucinich
• John McCain
• Barack Obama
• Ron Paul
• Bill Richardson
• Fred Thompson

Disclosure.

Barack Obama’s team has redesigned his website just prior to the Iowa Caucus and, well, I hope you like the color blue. I do.

I also think this redesign puts his web design effort at the top of the heap.

Starting at the top…

The over the top photoshopping of the clouds and lens flare as a background is so dramatically piled-on that you have to give the designers a lot of credit for even submitting it. The fact that it works is a testament to not only the designers but also whoever approved this thing. An extra cloud here, a ray of sunshine there and this effort is a parody. The photo used of the candidate is also pretty gutsy, with him staring into the future or whatever, but again in this new setting works just fine for me. The tone of the site now is one of confidence. No blaring headlines or screaming calls to action. Even the illustration used to announce his victory in Iowa is tasteful.

(more…)

Making fun of bad logo designs is lame. So, let’s say that Xerox’s new logo is just fine, if a little curvy/Speed Racery looking, and move onto that weird ball thing next to it.

Around the office here we are thinking what it might represent. Surely there will be a corporate short story written about how it moves the company smoothly into its next phase or some equally ridiculous metaphor. I think it looks like a drag racer’s parachute. Jei thinks it resembles that Pokemon ball that the weird boy (?) kept those effeminate monster things in and threw at people. I’m sure we’re both right, but that’s not the point here. What follows is what Xerox might attach to their logo presentation to help us understand it more completely, and to justify the millions of dollars they spent on a logo that a college student might have handed over sheepishly to his design professor.

“The red sphere is at once familiar and mysterious, as it implies transparency and stability. It stands heroically next to its lower-case partner, instilling confidence as this new chapter of xerox advances. At its core the new mark of xerox is a streamlined thoroughbred, a coiled spring from which ingenuity will vault. Deep down, below the superficiality of its animal allure, lies the truth of xerox’s rebirth (mark). The sphere of a new day is also a reassuring nod to the past, as the confident x reminds us always of our upper case past.”

Pretty sweet, right? And it’s fun. Send your best (most terrifying) xerox logo descriptions and we’ll post them right up here.

In the summer I wrote a post vaguely complaining about the deterioration in the design of Barack Obama’s campaign website.

Here is the site when it first launched early in 2007:

I liked this. The design was clean and the site was really easy to navigate. After initially launching this version, the campaign spent a few months developing tons of great new features which they didn’t really have a place to put.

(more…)

It seems like at least a few major news sites have launched redesigns over the last several weeks.  Here are five that I've noticed:

1. Newsweek magazine

I like how the sister sites for Newsweek and MSNBC are now much different from each. 

Check out the nifty multimedia page header that can collapse or expand on each page on Newsweek's site.

2. MSNBC

While I'm glad that this site has deemphasized its horrid navigation bar on the left, it is still there as "Categories." 

3. New York Observer

The Observer Daily is a blog that is now at center attention on the homepage; this weekly newspaper probably wants to focus more on day-to-day reporting to keep site visitors coming back to the site. 

On a sad note — at least for me — the gray background that used to surround the main content area of each page is now gone. 

4. Reader's Digest

I like the concept of the four main homepage boxes — The Daily 5, Daily Laughs, Your Photos, and Featured Story — but does this emphasis on fresh content distract people from the other great content in the site? 

5. Fortune magazine

The new design seems clean and uncluttered — a major plus.  Further, the table of content pages for magazine issues is pretty straightforward.

On Saturday, MSNBC launched a redesigned version of its website (via Cyberjournalist). You can view some reader reaction here and take a tour of the new site here.

I’ve never been a fan of the MSNBC website. While I think the new design is an improvement from a design perspective, the site has a long way to go before I’ll be converted into a regular visitors. Here are my specific criticisms of the new design and the overall site strategy.

(1) The navigation on the new site isn’t very user friendly. For me, the banner at the top of the page is useless from a navigation perspective. Instead of just providing me with a nice breakdown of the content of the site in the header, MSNBC uses the entire thing to advertise the sites of the Today Show and Dateline. The actual site navigation has been de-emphasized and placed at the bottom left area of the page, meaning many, many users will be scrolling to find the Health and Weather sections on the homepage. (more…)

A friend of mine works for Gannett, which owns USA Today and heaps of local newspapers and TV stations throughout the country. Well, most of the local sites are horrible at the very least. However, the company is in the process of rolling out new designs across their network.

The Desert Sun site from Palm Springs, California is one of the first sites to get the facelift:

Compare it to the site of its sister publication The Californian — which will likely get its new design soon — from Salinas, California:

I’m not going to do a site review, but can you tell the difference?

Launch Flash Review

When I was 7, my father finally broke down and bought our first color TV and I wouldn’t stop screaming for days, I’m told. Well, that feeling was nothing compared to the crazy joy we all felt over here when the McCain for President web team presented us with a new colorized version of their campaign site yesterday. To be honest, though, when Edwards spiced his site up, I sprained both wrists from all the high-fives.

This latest version of the campaign site seems only a bit forced to me. If I had gotten as much criticism for the black and white scheme as the designers originally did, I might have used this opportunity to throw some color in as well. With that being said, let’s take a look and see how we did.

The structure of the site is more traditionally laid out and in the header, a circus-style banner is revealed to proclaim The Announcement is coming today. So, immediately the tone of the user experience is changed to produce some excitement, where we last had nothing but grave statements and ghosted stars and stripes. The header was so militaristic, in fact, with the black and white flag and the Silver Star McCain logo (now in color!) that the added old school banner gives it a WWII feel. Maybe this is intentionally nostalgic but probably not.

Below is a lot of new content and all of it in full color. The generous real estate used for the campaign announcement looks good here and the photo used is upbeat rather than overly serious. A gigantic blue button begs me to Read The Speech, which I respectfully decline. Below all of that swagger is another chance to read the speech, an opportunity to donate and some supporting articles from the day, including (did you read ahead?) a link to read the speech. The Get Involved section is the same standard fare as before, and is of course numbered for my convenience. The middle third of the home page is Straight Talk Express-centric. A slick video full of sound bites reminds us that the bus is coming, and to the right of this is a well enough designed, side-scrolling calendar of bus events. A quick click on the modest “more” button takes me to the Straight Talk Express page (a web 2.0 overdose of shiny floor reflections and Photoshop filters). Below this is a poll about water-free urinals, congress and the World Toilet Summit and some mostly regurgitated filler content.

So, perhaps we can assume that the McCain team kept the site in black and white until he officially announced. I think they’d like that, so let’s. What the hell?

This is an improvement over the initial launch of course and the black and white gripes will finally come to an end. It was a weird couple of months though, and I wonder if the branding took hold a little stronger than anticipated.

• Launch Flash Review
• View Previous McCain Site Review
• View other Design Reviews

“It’s a big-picture site, for big-picture thinkers” according to Managing Editor Christopher Jones and although I’ve not been guilty of any big-picture thinking lately, I do like a big shiny picture on a web site’s home page as much as the next adult A-D-D sufferer. Portfolio.com has created an online magazine here that actually feels like a magazine. Not a magazine that you would ever have in your home, but an impulse purchase at the airport newsstand. You’re 2 hours early and it was this or Men’s Health again.

The site’s title is curious. Breaking Business News and Opinion is not how I would introduce the site. That moniker seems more suited for the cnn or msnbc crowd. Fair enough I suppose if they are referring to the Top 5 stories, but the traditional news services’ business pages update all day. These 5 stories have been here a day or two.

Now into the design of this thing, which was the point here.

(more…)

Click on the left image to see the before and the right to see the after.

Sounds like a stirring movie, but it isn’t, thank God. It’s the title of my design review of John Edwards campaign site update. I was puzzled by the lack of Edward’s face on the last version of this site, and I thought the overall tone was rather grim. Not John McCain grim, but pretty sullen. Since that initial launch, Edwards has gotten a lot of publicity that really has nothing to do with his campaign. The Ann Coulter weirdness and the announcement of his wife’s medical condition took center stage. Upon viewing his site last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see a much more inviting and energetic offering from his camp.

I still have to shoot past that splash page, but only once and I’m going to let that one go since clearly he isn’t. In the main site what was once a duotone wall of healthcare opinions and stats is now a vibrant interface that is only mildly annoying. The main real estate on the page is taken up with a huge scrolling image of: John at a rally, John at a rally again, Global Warming Action Month, a shot of John appearing to preach in a field perhaps and John with Elizabeth saying thanks for the support and concern. Then a few more flags and rallies and a big Stop The War message. Okay, no one but me will have gone through them all, but they’re a big improvement over the static message from the last design effort.

The Action Items (yeah, I said it) are now much easier to get through. The last version held them in tedious fields of solid red and blue, and along with the stagnant nature of the page, they were passed over pretty quickly. The new version just does it better. The colors are brighter, no elements are reversed out, and Spread The Word has been replaced with a Grassroots invite that at least seems more interesting. Not interesting enough for me to click on, but I’m a worst-case scenario.

Below all of this are included more images to break up the content of the page and a link to send John and Elizabeth a note. It’s a nice touch and even I click through. The thank you note that starts the page is elegantly written and thankfully the picture of John lightens the mood as he is orange here for some reason.

Overall the redesign of the site, mild though it is, really works in my opinion and the site is now on par with the better presidential campaign sites.

Click here for the old boring version of the site.

Click here for the thrilling new version.

Click on image above to launch Flash Review.
Rollover numbers to view comments.

Well, this is not what I expected to see, or watch, or have my browser crash from.  

Restarting browser…

The exploratory site was pretty presentable. Not much to it, but for what it was, I thought the designers did a perfectly acceptable job with it. I’m pretty sure these are not the same designers. This review could get wordy, I fear, so I’ll be mindful of the pile-on mentality of design critiques on blogs and keep it concise.

When I pull up the page my eyes go to the less than inspired Rudy logo and then to the unflattering screen capture of our candidate in mid explanation. Under his image I then read “A Time For Leadership”. That flow was all intentional and it worked just fine. Now what? Behind that inspirational tagline are my options to send an email, turn up the volume and scroll through something, I think. I honestly don’t know, and I do this for a living (I tried to click through and got an error). Awkwardly placed to the left is the button to play the video. While I appreciate that the video doesn’t start automatically, this navigation is just unnecessary in its overall size here. I would have thought that all of this could have been neatly placed under the screen.

Author’s note: At first glance I was sure that this video section layout was an html error, but I am leaning toward the designers again.

Clicking on any of the navigation for the video section, I soon learn, is a browser killer and after I make that mistake a few times, I get control of my OCD and bypass it altogether, instead moving right to the (wait for it) Action Items. Incorporating the highly sophisticated 1,2,3 numerological approach, I am invited to (1) Join, (2) Contribute and finally (3) Get Involved. The Get Involved section really commands my attention with the red on blue seizure-inducing palette. Can you feel the excitement?  The most pleasing design element is the link to the RudyStore (beveled edges though? Really?). Sadly, when I click on the link, my browser refuses me and eventually freezes.

Restarting browser …

Beneath all of this excitement are nestled Special Features and something referred to as Live Feed.

It appears that Special Features for now would be more correctly named Feature. And the feature today is a Photo Album. The designers just had real estate to fill here and they all know it. It happens. They’ll do something creative going forward I trust. The drop shadow on the photos was an unnecessarily homey touch. The Live Feed, it turns out, is really blog entries and press releases. I don’t really understand why there wouldn’t be a section called Blog, and one called Press Releases here, but maybe I’m still goofy from the seizure a few paragraphs back.

The oddest thing about this homepage is the layout. For some reason the page is falling out of the right hand side. All content is within the internal boundary of the site except the action items and the store, which appear to be forced outside by bad coding, but (as noted above) is actually intended. This is such an odd presentation that I have to think it was pushed out the door just a bit before it was ready. Low marks for the Rudy2008 design at this point.

• Click here to launch Flash review.
• To read previous design reviews, go here. 

Part 4 of my possibly tiresome campaign site review series finds us staring at the grim, unblinking visage of John McCain! The (mostly) black and white maverick of the campaign design world sure has its share of detractors. The monochromatic palette seems to evoke a love it or hate it vote. I happen to think it does not work, but that the site can look very solid with a few edits.

If the idea of the black and white design is a metaphor for strength of purpose or a stance on an issue (or issues), I understand that, but I think that any of those metaphors can be realized (as much as these design decisions can trigger an emotional response) with a much lighter and better-designed approach. My fix would be to add color to every obvious space within the interior real estate of the site. For example:

• The logo remains black and white, as does the background of the site including the flag imagery.

• The navigation can remain as is until mouse-over. Color could be introduced here in the nav field, not just the text, and the menu should open in that color as well.

• The left navigation/latest news fields and icons would all be in full color and the three very heavy bottom video invitations (Involving You | Informing You | Connecting You) could simply be full color versions of the existing photography.

• I would also make sure to put as much color as reasonable into the footer, and I would add the infamous DONATE button in its red glory.

My hope when I saw the first version of the site was that the black and white motif would give way to a full-bodied rendering once McCain announced and launched a full site. Dramatic entrance or something. Onward, minus any color remarks.

The structure of the homepage is fine with me and I appreciate the compact design here. The logo is strong and unique for a campaign logo and I assume the attached mark is the Silver Star, which McCain was awarded, and therefore cannot be questioned by a sissy like me. The flag background is pretty muted and therefore doesn’t offend. The universal navigation is easy to locate and use and the Undecided? navigation point is a fairly  unique keyhole. Reads better than About John McCain, I guess. One point about the photography that I’ll mention; McCain is a mechanical, unnerving subject to view in some of these shots, and his people should realize that we understand that he’s serious about this. More shots of him smiling and or looking presidential. Less of him appearing as if to ask me my intentions with his daughter.

In conclusion, I think the site is problematic in this rendition because of the black and white template choice, but feel that it could be very strong if edited discreetly.

• Launch Flash Review
• View other design reviews here

My third presidential candidate website review is Barack Obama (previous reviews were of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards' sites). My first impression is a positive one, as this site is constructed very solidly and allows for all of my essential user needs to be met in one pass (mostly. I have to scroll a touch to get to the networking/sharing options).

Before I get into the layout of the index page, which I like, let's get this logo figured out. On the plus side, this logo doesn't resemble any other campaign logo that I'm familiar with and that aspect alone scores big with me. The American flag, which is abused/used incorrectly on so many of these logos is pretty muted here and is part of what has to be intended as farmland. The white sunrise is a new day, I'm guessing, and the whole package creates a strong "O" that is sure to be translated to T-shirts and buttons easily. That's a lot of thought into a campaign logo. When I saw this a week ago, I didn't like it. I thought it was too Web 2.0 driven. I was probably wrong. And to the designers who came up with it, thanks for not making the O icon the first letter in his name.

As we enter the site, the Web 2.0 design elements are all there, but not too over the top or distracting. The gradients, the curves, the muted grays all exist here, but within a solid design, work well. The logo isn't reflected. Points there. The red and white flag stripes are in the header though, and that decision lost you some of those points. 

The universal navigation across the bottom of the header is clear and the menus are easy to work through. The donate button is pretty obvious. I am under the impression now that "donate" must always be rendered with white letters in a red field.  I have no idea why.

The main story is where my eyes travel next, and is done in a pretty unassuming way. Just a simple headline, a big image and a click through to its home in the newsroom. My.BarackObama.com feels a little weird to me, and as much as I dislike the term "Action Items", I would have preferred it here. I understand that the campaign is about me, but using the My prefix reads sort of creepy, in my opinion. The section itself is well designed and the icons + keywords look is solid.

BarackTV is where I am drawn next. The layout and navigation are very simple here and the video pulls up quickly enough. When I saw the temporary site, my fear was that users would be inundated with video. I thought that with all the excitement over viral marketing and videos from the mid-term elections that Obama's site would be really saturated with that experience. It isn't.

The site seems to fit in Upcoming Events and In The News headlines as an afterthought, but they are far from hidden. Just not given the importance of the previous sections. No real concerns there.

The page is finished with the networking links that are now part of the campaign site standard.

Overall, pretty high marks.

Click on the screenshot and rollover the numbers for further, but more trivial rumblings.

Part 2 of my presidential campaign site review series (Hillary was the first) finds us staring into the guts of the Edwards effort. We have clicked through the initial splash page, dodging the listserv sign-up and chose instead to enter the site.

I’m puzzled at the lack of photography on the main page. No John Edwards picture to be found. He’s the pretty boy of the group, and he is notoriously absent. Because of that, my eyes go first, to:

The logo.

Using what has recently been a Republican treatment, the font is sans serif and devoid of anything cute. Wait. Is that swinging star followed by a green trail? I get it. Green means environmental. And the star means…fancy. Even with the unnecessary mark, I like the logo as it works well within this site and has a contemporary feel. It also does not rely on any ponderous emblems or flags (looking at the giant O in the striped farmland, senator…).

The structure of the page is solid, but I am not really pulled in any direction. The big pull here should be the Universal Health Care plan, I’m assuming, but because the palette of the site is very closely adhered to, I pass by the big title image and move horizontally to the right-hand navigation. I do like the way these elements are put together though. Each action item (sorry) is given enough real estate to be seen and considered. The design style/font choice/minimal drop-shadow works well here. I was compelled to click on the One Corps logo thinking it was some type of Marine Corps charity/information. It wasn’t, and it locked up my browser.

The universal navigation across the top of the page is also a little buggy in IE7, but the drop-down menus are succinct and very easy to read and navigate.

Below the fold contents include his latest video, some platform issues highlighted, blog headlines, press headlines, testimonials and quite a few social networking options.

Whether or not users will scroll that deep on the home page is a concern, and I think the design has crammed as much as possible into this first page.

Click on the screen image below and rollover the numbers for further comments.